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Book. 



THE 



RELIGIOUS WARS OF FRANCE, 

FROM THE 

ACCESSION OF HENRY THE SECOND, TO THE 
PEACE OF YERVINS. 



v-/ 



33g 3Jonati)an Suncan, lEsq-, ft. a. 

Author of " Memoirs of the Dakes of Normandy »' &c. 




LONDON: 
JOSEPH RICKERBY, SHERBOURN LANE, 

KING WILLIAM STREET, CITY. 
T?AQ. 






LONDON: 

JOSEPH RICKERBV, PRINTER, 

SHERBOURN LANE. 



PREFACE. 



The sixteenth century is one of the most glorious in 
the annals of the human race. It is one of the grand 
epochs of reform, in which truth and civilization 
achieved decisive victories: it is the cradle in which 
the infant form of civil and religious liberty was 
rocked. Whatever freedom obtains in modern times 
may be traced to this interesting era, when the sove- 
reignty of the people, and the right of private judg- 
ment, in matters of opinion, were first proclaimed. 
In the great struggle between the principles of the 
Reformation and the ecclesiastical supremacy of Rome, 
France played a distinguished part ; and though she 
failed to emancipate herself from the tyranny of the 
Vatican, she retired from the contest without disho- 
nour. Nearly forty years of resistance proved the sin- 
cerity of the Protestant party : they perished on the 
scaffold and the field with the heroism of martyrs. 
Their opponents displayed equal courage and forti- 
tude, and regarded death as the passport to paradise. 
During nearly the last half of the sixteenth century, 



VI PREFACE. 

civil war was waged throughout the whole of this fine 
kingdom, devastating its fields, destroying its cities, 
exhausting its wealth, and decimating its population. 
Of these religious contests this volume attempts to 
narrate the history. 

The two most voluminous writers, on this period of 
the French annals are De Thou and Davila, and they 
are the most minute in details. Their facts are in 
very few points dissimilar ; but in tracing events to 
their causes, they seldom agree. De Thou, the son 
and grandson of a president of the parliament of Paris, 
was imbued with the severe maxims of the magistracy, 
and detested all courtiers. He was enamoured of ju- 
dicial forms, even to bigotry ; and without making any 
allowance for the heated temper of men, in the troubled 
times of which he wrote, he condemns, without mercy, 
princes and ministers, generals and prelates, when- 
ever they overstep the strict letter of the law. He 
lived and died in the Roman Catholic faith, and his 
style has never been surpassed for gravity, energy, 
purity, and method. 

Davila was an Italian, one of the numerous ad- 
venturers who flocked to Paris, after the marriage of 
Catharine of Medicis with Henry II. He has been 
accused of leaning to the court party, but a careful 
study of his work compels us to dissent from this criti- 
cism. That he wrote with a bias, may be admitted ; 
but where is the historian to whom the same censure, 



PREFACE. Vll 

in some qualified form, may not be applied ? To be 
totally impartial, in the rigid sense of the phrase, 
seems impossible. The descriptive style of Davila is 
masterly. Battles, popular tumults, negociations, and 
intrigues, he depicts in glowing colours; and the 
fidelity of his topographical sketches must be acknow- 
ledged by any modern traveller, who has read his 
work. 

To enumerate the poems, memoirs, biographies, col- 
lections of letters, and other documents, which relate 
to the Religious Wars of France, and to the principal 
actors who played a distinguished part in that memo- 
rable struggle, would occupy an inconvenient space. 
Our leading guides have been De Thou and Davila, 
in the general arrangement of our subject ; other 
authors are cited in the text and notes, to supply their 
deficiencies, or combat their opinions. 

In the present state of religious excitement, when 
the Roman Catholics are straining every nerve to 
make converts, and a section of the Church of Eng- 
land claims for itself the apostolical succession, it 
seems desirable that the Huguenots of France should 
be made known to the Non-Conformists of England. 
Our object, therefore, has been to condense into as 
small a compass as possible, all the facts which illus- 
trate the rise, progress, and fall of the Protestant 
party in France, from the accession of Henry II. to 
the peace of Vervins, avoiding all long details of bat- 



Vlll PREFACE. 

ties, but carefully explaining their causes and results. 
The moral lesson sought to be conveyed is the sinful- 
ness and the uselessness of persecution for religious 
opinion. This volume is addressed rather to the 
young than to the old, — to those whose minds are yet 
open to conviction, rather than to the prejudiced or 
the exclusive. It professes to teach mutual forbear- 
ance, and to inculcate a respect for the rights of con- 
science. In laying bare the detestable machinations of 
Jesuitism, our object has been, not to heap animad- 
version on the past, but to warn present and future 
generations to shun the vices of their predecessors : — 

" Consulere patriae ; parcere afflictis ; fera 
Caede abstinere ; tern pus atque irae dare; 
Orbi quietem ; saeculo pacem suo ; 
Haec summa virtus ; petitur hac caelum via." 

Seneca. 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION.— Page 1. 

Sketch of the court of Francis I. — Calvin's " Christian In- 
stitutions." First appearance of the Jesuits in France — Declara- 
tion of D'Andelot— Death of Henry II. 



REIGN OF FRANCIS II.— Page 15. 

State of parties — Rise of the family of Guise — Disgrace of 
Montmorenci — The Princes of Bourbon — The Chatillons — 
Intrigues at Vendome — Trial and condemnation of Anne du 
Bourg — Recognition of the Jesuits — The conspiracy of Am- 
boise — Triumph of the Guises — Arrest of the Prince of Conde 
—Death of Francis I. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. Section 1.— Page 38. 

Catharine of Medicis appointed Regent — Liberation of the 
Prince of Conde — The Triumvirate — The Colloquy of Poissy 
— Intrigues of Philip II. of Spain — Massacre at Vassi— The 
first Religious War— Elizabeth of England assists the Hugue- 
nots—Capture of Rouen by the Royalists — Death of the King 
of Navarre — Battle of Dreux — Death of Marshal St. Andre — 
Murder of the Duke of Guise by Poltrot — Convention of Am- 



X CONTENTS. 

boise— Schism in the Gallican Church.— Journey of the King 
through the provinces — The assembly at Moulins— Sentiments 
of Charles IX.— Second War— Battle of St. Denis— Death of 
Montmorenci — Failure of the Calvinists before Chartres — 
Second peace — Insiduous policy of Catharine — Escape of 
Conde and Coligny to Rochelle — Third War — Battle of Jarnac 
— Death of Conde — Jane D'Albret, Queen of Navarre— Co- 
ligny appointed generalissimo of the Calvinists —Battle of La 
Roche PAbeille — Battle of Moncontour — Battle of Arnay-le- 
Duc — The peace of Saint Germain-en-Laye. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. Section II.— Page 97- 

The Prince of Beam — Treacherous favours bestowed on 
Coligny — Death of the Queen of Navarre — Preparations for an 
invasion of Flanders — Marriage of the young King of Navarre 
and Margaret of Valois — Massacre of Saint Bartholomew — 
— Murder of Coligny — Conduct of Charles IX.— Recantation 
of the Bourbon Princes — Justification of the Massacre of Saint 
Bartholomew by Charles IX. — Its effects in foreign countries 
and in France — Remarks on its origin and its authors — Fourth 
War — Heroic defence of La Rochelle, by the Calvinists — Peace 
— The Duke of Anjou elected King of Poland— The Conspi- 
racy of Shrove Tuesday — Death of Charles IX. 



REIGN OF HENRY III.— Page 142. 

Return of the King from Poland — State of public opinion — 
The confederation of Millaud— The fifth War— Death of the 
Cardinal of Lorraine — Marriage of the King — Intrigues and jea- 
lousy of the courtiers — The German auxiliaries defeated by 
Henry, Duke of Guise— Truce of seven months— Violated — 



CONTENTS. XI 

Renewal of Hostilities — The King of Navarre openly professes 
Calvinism — Peace-— Origin of the League — The first States 
of Blois — Difficult position of the King — Intrigues of Guise 
— The Edict of Poitiers — Quarrels among the Courtiers — Insur- 
rections in the Provinces — The " War of Lovers" — Peace — 
The Duke of Alencon's expedition into Flanders ; its failure — 
His death — Succession to the throne — The Cardinal of Bourbon 
— Alliance between the League and Philip of Spain — Embar- 
rassment of the King — His proposals to the King of Navarre, 
who rejects them — Manifesto of the League — Answer of the 
King — Treaty of Nemours— Declaration of War by the King 
of Navarre — Policy of Henry III. — The war of the " Three 
Henries" — Negociations between the King of Navarre and Ca- 
tharine— Battle of Coutras — Guise defeats the Germans — Meet- 
ing of the Lorraine Princes at Nanci— The Counsel of Sixteen 
— Conduct of the Duke of Guise — His arrival at Paris— Weak- 
ness and vacillation of the King — Insurrections of the Barricades 
— Negociations between the King and the League — The second 
States of Blois — Assassination of the Duke of Guise — 
Tumults in Paris— Revolt of the Provinces — The Duke of 
May enne appointed head of the League— Coalition between 
Henry and the King of Navarre — The confederates advance 
on Paris— Assassination of the King, by James Clement. 



REIGN OF HENRY IV.— Page 250. 

State of parties in the royalist camp — Conditions accepted 
by the King — Schemes of the nobility — Rejoicings in Paris on 
account of the murder of Henry III. — Policy of the Duke of 
Mayenne — The Cardinal of Bourbon takes the title of Charles 
X. — Divisions among the League and its allies — Embarrass- 
ment of Henry IV.— Battle of Arques — Siege of Paris by the 
royalists — Intrigues and discontent in the capital — Battle of 



Xil CONTENTS. 

Ivry — Sufferings of the Parisians — The Duke of Parma 
marches to the relief of Paris — Introduces provisions, and re- 
treats to Flanders — The King urged to recant — His evasion of 
that demand — Arrival of the Papal Legate in France — His inso- 
lent monitory — Turenne returns from England with auxiliaries 
— Siege of Rouen — Relieved by the Duke of Parma — His 
masterly retreat — Negociations at Rome — Intercepted corres- 
pondence of the League — Its influence on the King— The con- 
ference at Surrenne — Intrigues of the Spaniards— The King 
resolves to recant — Embarrassment of Mayenne — Decision of 
the Parliament of Paris — Abjuration of Henry IV. — Truce 
of three months — Machinations of the Jesuits— Barriere incited 
to murder the King — His examination and execution — Submis- 
sion of Paris— The coronation of the King at Chartres — His 
entry into Paris — Trial of the Jesuits — Speeches of Arnauld and 
D0II6 — Submission of Normandy — Campaign of Count Charles 
of Mansfeldt — Decline of the League— Jean Chatel wounds the 
King— His execution — Declaration of War against Spain — 
Battle of Fontaine Francais — Submission of Mayenne— Abso- 
lution of Henry IV. by the Pope — Capture of Dourlens, Cam- 
bray, and Calais by the Spaniards — Also of Amiens — Recovered 
by the King — Negociations between France and Spain — Peace 
of Vervins. 



RELIGIOUS WARS OF FRANCE. 



INTRODUCTION. 

The doctrines of the Reformation were introduced 
into France at the commencement of the sixteenth 
century, during the reign of Francis I. In 1519, 
two years after Luther had openly denied the in- 
fallibility of the church of Rome, the faculty of 
theology at Paris denounced the new opinions ; and, 
in 1521, the Sorbonne published their famous con- 
demnation of the Lutheran heresy. These very cen- 
sures defeated the object of those who pronounced 
them, for they attracted public attention ; and per- 
sons of the hio-hest station in the realm became 

o 

curious to examine and weigh the merits of a con- 
es 

troversy to which those celebrated seminaries of 
theological learning had attached so much impor- 
tance. It is manifest, from the most authentic re- 
cords, that so early as the year 1523, there were, in 
several of the provinces of France, great numbers of 
the nobility and gentry who had embraced the re- 
formed doctrines, and even some of the episcopal 
order. 1 

Many circumstances contributed to the successful 

1 Mosheim. Eccles. Hist. vol. iv. p. 87. 



* INTRODUCTION. 

reception of the new opinions in France. Francis 
I. having no fixed principles of religion, and regard- 
ing modes of faith with almost equal indifference,' 
treated Lutheranism as a question of policy. His 
hatred of Charles V. of Spain induced him to favour 
the Protestants of Germany, and this motive also 
prompted him to act with toleration towards their bre- 
thren in France, such indulgence powerfully aiding his 
ambitious views. However, when he did not require 
these foreign services, he hesitated not to persecute 
his subjects; and he is reported to have said, that 
" if he thought the blood in his own arm was tainted 
with the Lutheran heresy, he would order it to be 
cut off; and further, that he would not spare even 
his own children, if they entertained sentiments con- 
trary to those of the church of Rome." 1 In 1529 
he sanctioned the execution of Louis Berquin, a gen- 
tleman of Artois, who, though frequently admonished 
and pardoned, persisted in preaching the new doc- 
trines, for which he was burned alive in the Place 
de Greve at Paris. But notwithstanding this act of 
severity, the general conduct of Francis was humane 
and conciliatory; and his warm attachment to his 
sister, Margaret of Yalois, Queen of Navarre, (who 
openly avowed Protestantism, and gloried in being 
its defender,) made him turn a deaf ear to the mur- 
murs and remonstrances of the Catholic party. Bran- 
tome relates, that the constable, Anne de Montmo^ 
renci, conversing with the king on the most effectual 
mode of extirpating heresy, made no scruple of say- 
ing, " that his majesty should begin with the court 

1 Hist, de la Naissance et du Progres de THer^sie, par Flor 
de Remond, cited by Mosheim, vol. iv. p. 89, in notis. 



INTRODUCTION. 6 

and his own relations/' naming the queen, his sister, 
as one of the most dangerous ; to which Francis re- 
plied, " Speak no more of her; she loves me too well 
not to believe what I believe, nor will she ever adopt 
a creed incompatible with the dignity and safety of 
my throne." 1 

It was during the reign of Francis I. that women 
first acquired that ascendency at court, which, in 
subsequent reigns, enabled them to nominate minis- 
ters of state, bishops, judges, and marshals. This 
monarch, fond of gallantry and intrigue, thought that 
the charms and gentleness of the fair sex would soften 
the manners of his courtiers, who had hitherto known 
no other glory than that of arms. To give ad- 
ditional brilliancy to his court, he drew thither the 
most wealthy of the prelates, who gradually neg- 
lected the spiritual concerns of their dioceses. From 
their order the excessive luxury and elegant refine- 
ments of the higher circles of French society ori- 
ginated. Men of letters, wits, and poets were also 
specially honoured with the royal favour. Such 
were the guests who crowded the palaces of Francis, 
attracted by the love of pleasure, by avarice, and by 
ambition. 

The object of the women was to win the regards 
of the king, of his favourite ministers, and of all who 
possessed credit and influence. Chastity soon ceased 
to be a virtue, and female honour was bartered for 
the privilege of bestowing honours and pensions. 
The functions of government passed from the hands 
of the monarch : his ministers exercised but a nomi- 

1 Brantome, Vie de Margueritte. 

B 2 



INTRODUCTION. 



nal authority ; the wives and daughters of the nobles 
swayed the sceptre in turn, each retaining it so long 
as her beauty, talents, or intrigues commanded an as- 
cendency. 

The gaieties and dissipations of the court soon 
produced their demoralizing effects on the prelates. 
Their wealth enabled them to give sumptuous enter- 
tainments, in which the vanity of the women had 
full scope for display. Their manners were more 
polished than those of the other courtiers, and secured 
to them more decided advantages. They had also 
the reputation of being more enlightened, and their 
female admirers used this as an argument to solicit 
for them a share in political administration. Their 
ambition was not satisfied with ecclesiastical power ; 
they aspired to be ministers of state, and they suc- 
ceeded in their wishes. 

The conduct of the wits and poets, who thronged 
the saloons of the palace, increased the corruption of 
the age. They lowered the moral standard of the 
court circles by their nauseating flatteries, their un- 
chaste songs, and their profane epigrams. They soon 
made themselves of importance to the ladies, by 
praising the beauty of some favourite and satirizing 
her rivals : their talents were put up to sale, and 
purchased by the highest bidder ; their verses con- 
ferred genius and taste on their patrons, though na- 
ture might have denied them common sense. This 
mixture of women, bishops, wits, and military, 
formed what was deemed a brilliant and gallant 
court. The courtiers were divided into two fac- 
tions, which respectively obeyed as their leaders the 
Duchess D'Etampes, mistress of Francis I., and Diana 



INTRODUCTION. ^ 

of Poitiers, mistress of his eldest son, Henry the 
Dauphin. 

The Lutherans prided themselves on the austerity 
of their manners, the purity of their lives, and their 
indifference to worldly pleasure. The self-denial of 
their pastors, contrasted with the dissolute levities of 
the prelates, furnished a theme for popular declama- 
tion, and the preachers thundered against the vices 
of the church. Their sermons pleased the masses, 
who believed that they saw truth where they saw 
morality. The absence of the prelates from their 
dioceses still further operated in favour of the re- 
formers, as the inferior ranks of the Catholic clergy, 
disheartened by the abandonment of their chiefs, 
struggled with feebler efforts against the new doc- 
trines. Thus the Huguenot 1 party gradually in- 
creased in numbers and influence, and, encouraged 
by the success of their brethren in the Protestant 
provinces of Germany, threatened to subvert the es- 
tablished religion in France. 

The bishops, though immersed in the pleasures of 

1 Some etymologists suppose this term derived from Huguon, 
a word used in Touraine, to signify persons who walk at night 
through the streets ; and as the first Protestants, like the first 
Christians, may have chosen that season for their religious as- 
semblies, the nickname of Huguenot may, naturally enough, have 
been applied to them by their enemies Others are of opinion 
that it was derived from a French and faulty pronunciation of 
the German word eidgnoffen, which signifies confederates, and 
had been originally the name of that valiant part of the city of 
Geneva which entered into an alliance with the Swiss cantons, in 
order to maintain their liberties against the tyrannical attempts of 
Charles III., Duke of Savoy. These confederates were called 
Egnotes ; and thence, very probably, was derived the word Hu- 
guenot, now under consideration. The Count V liars, in a let- 
ter written to the King of France from the province of Langue- 



O INTRODUCTION. 

the court, were too clear-sighted not to perceive the 
precipice on which they stood ; and though they 
had sanctioned the aid furnished by Francis to the 
Germans, in order that their rebellions might weaken 
the political power of Charles V., they were not dis- 
posed to tolerate the same opinions in reference to 
France, lest their ascendancy should despoil them of 
their revenues, as it had already despoiled the bishops 
of Germany. It was the dread of these consequences 
that urged them to insist on the sanguinary mea- 
sures they proposed for the extirpation of heresy; 
admonishing Francis that the maintenance of the 
old faith in its integrity, would be a full atonement 
for all the sins he had committed, or might after- 
wards commit. Such was the policy of the courtier 
prelates ; and the influence they possessed over the 
king may be judged of from the following passage 
from the historian Daniel, who thus paints his cha- 
racter. " Notwithstanding," says Daniel, " the pas- 
sion of love to which this prince too greatly aban- 
doned himself, he always preserved a great fund of 
religion, as well from a true piety as a wise policy : 
he took all the precautions possible to prevent novel- 
doc, where he was lieutenant-general, and dated the 11th of 
November, 1 560, calls the riotous Calvinists of the Cevennes, 
Huguenots ; and this is the first time that the term is found 
in the registers of that province, applied to the Protestants. 
(Mosheim, vol. iv. p. 368, in notis.) These people were called 
Huguenots, because the first conventicles they held in the city of 
Tours (where that belief first took strength and increased) were 
in certain cellars under-ground, near Hugo's Gate, from whence 
they were by the vulgar sort called Huguenots ; and in Flan- 
ders, because they went in the habits of Mendicants, they were 
called Geux. — Davilla. Hist, des Guerres Civiles de la France, 
p. 20. folio. 



INTRODUCTION. 



ties in religion being introduced into the kingdom ; 
be gave terrible examples of severity." 1 On tbis ex- 
traordinary passage, the Abbe de Condillac makes 
the following just remarks : — 

" If there be no religion," says Condillac, " with- 
out faith in dogmas, faith in dogmas does not con- 
stitute the whole of religion : the complete fulfilment 
of the duties of our station is an essential part of it. 
Consequently, to praise the piety of sovereigns who 
violate their duties, is to prostitute religion in order 
to flatter the vices of the great. Now, without 
speaking of the amours of Francis, — of those amours 
which, according to Pere Daniel, did not prevent 
him from being truly pious, — he may be reproached 
with devoting to pleasure the time that he owed to 
the cares of government. His want of economy, his 
magnificence and his festivals, impoverished his 
finances ; for so little order was observed, that no 
account was kept of the expenditure. He was then 
reduced to the necessity of surcharging the people 
with taxes to carry on his wars ; — and what wars ! 
were they undertaken for the advantage or protec- 
tion of the state ? No ; it is a false glory which takes 
up arms without any combination for success, or any 
foresight of the result. What remained to him ? — 
victories and defeats, conquests quickly lost, a prison, 
a disgraceful treaty, a ruined kingdom. Such is the 
account which this religious prince might have given 
of his reign. He believed in certain dogmas, and 
burned those who did not believe in them ; such is 
the sum total of his great fund of religion, — such 
was his true piety. It is not said that he fulfilled all 
1 Daniel, A la Fin de la Vie de Francois Premier. 



8 



INTRODUCTION 



the duties of a king ; it is only said that he gave 
terrible examples of severity; and yet this writer 
(Daniel) has the assurance to say, that he took all 
the precautions possible to prevent the introduction 
of heresy into his states. Saint Louis would have 
found others in the purity of his own morals. 
Such, however, is the morality with which the minds 
of princes are poisoned." l 

The great apostle of the French reformers was 
John Calvin, a Frenchman by birth, being a native 
of Noyon in Picardy, where he was born on the 1 Oth 
of July, 1509. His doctrines, particularly that on 
the eucharist, were adopted with great zeal by the 
Queen of Navarre. His name acquired a wonder- 
ful popularity after the publication of his " Christian 
Institutions," which, in 1536, he boldly dedicated to 
Francis I. This work became a standard of faith 
and discipline, and gave a fixedness and unity to the 
preachers of the reformed doctrine. The Faculty of 
Theology at Paris drew up an answer, in which they 
minutely detailed the Catholic system of orthodoxy, 
and the two parties joined issue on these respective 
documents; but Calvin triumphed, and Francis, 
urged by the prelates, gave permission, in 1545, to 
exterminate the heretics by the sword. 

The Baron D'Oppeda was charged with the execu- 
tion of this sanguinary mandate. He was first pre- 
sident of the parliament of Aix, a man of violent 
passions and the most furious bigotry. He revived 
against the Waldenses, assembled in the valleys of 
the Alps on the side of Provence, a decree of that 

1 Hist. Mod. t. 13, p. 101. Ouvres Completes de Condil- 
lac. Edition 1823. 



INTRODUCTION- 



9 



parliament, which had been passed five years before, 
but which had not been enforced. " All was horrible 
and cruel in the sentence pronounced against them," 
says the historian De Thou ; and all was still more 
horrible and more cruel in its execution. Twenty- 
two villages were burned or plundered, with an inhu- 
manity of which the history of the most barbarous 
people scarcely affords an example. The unfortunate 
inhabitants, surprised during the night, and pursued 
from rock to rock by the light of the fires which con- 
sumed their dwellings, only avoided one ambuscade 
to fall into another : the piteous cries of old men, of 
women, and children, far from softening the hearts of 
the soldiery, as mad with rage as their chiefs, only 
served to indicate the track of the fugitives, and mark 
the hiding-places to which the assassins carried their 
fury. 1 

All the historians agree, that on this occasion the 
orders of Francis were most cruelly exceeded ; and 
many add that the king, on his death-bed, com- 
manded his son to inflict the severest punishment on 
the guilty perpetrators of these merciless atrocities. 
The severity inflicted, far from checking the progress 
of the Reformation, only inspired its professors with 
additional energy. They died on the scaffold and 
amidst the flames, with the heroism of martyrs ; and 
the examples of courage and devotedness thus mani- 
fested were deemed proofs of the righteousness of 
their cause. Hitherto the Calvinists had only ven- 
tured to assemble at night to celebrate the services 
of their religion ; now they dared to meet in open 

1 De Thouj torn. i. 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

day : they even erected a church in the heart of 
Paris; and the principal cities in the provinces quickly 
imitated the example of the capital. 

Henry II. was tainted with a more persecuting 
spirit than his father, Francis I. He kindled fires for 
the heretics in Paris, Lyons, Angers, Blois, and Bor- 
deaux ; but each fresh persecution swelled the ranks of 
the reformers. In this reign the Jesuits commenced 
their machinations under the protection of the 
Cardinal of Lorraine, who in 1550 procured letters 
patent from Henry II., by which they were per- 
mitted to build an establishment in Paris. When 
the letters were presented to the parliament for 
registry, the procureur-general strongly opposed 
their reception, and the act of legalization was sus- 
pended in consequence of his remonstrances : but in 
1552 the Jesuits obtained new letters patent, which 
contained a peremptory order to register the first. 
The procureur-general, however, persisted in his 
opposition, and the matter remained undecided for 
two years longer. On the 3rd of August, 1544, 
the parliament decided that, before the question 
was definitively settled, the letters of the king and 
the papal bulls, which the Jesuits had obtained, 
should be referred to the Bishop of Paris and the 
Dean of the Faculty of Theology. The bishop, whose 
name was Eustace de Bellay, did not hesitate to declare 
" that the bulls of Paul III. and Julius III. con- 
tained several articles which were contrary to reason, 
and which could not be toleratedor received in the 
Christian religion ; that they in whose favour they 
were made, arrogating to themselves the title of 
' Company of Jesus/ which could only be applied with 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

propriety to the universal church, of which Jesus 
Christ was the head, seemed to wish to constitute 
themselves that church : moreover, as the principal 
object they proposed to themselves was the conver- 
sion of the Mahometans, it would be better to give 
them a house on the frontier of the Turkish empire 
than in Paris, which was so distant from Constan- 
tinople. " The answer of the Faculty of Theology 
was not more favourable. That body, by an unani- 
mous vote, declared the new society " dangerous to 
the holy faith, calculated to disturb the peace of the 
church, and more fitted to destroy than to edify." 

These two replies annihilated all the hopes of the 
Jesuits during the reign of Henry II. though they 
plotted in the dark, and waited their time. They 
retired to that quarter of the metropolis called Saint 
Germain, where they pretended to be exempt from 
the jurisdiction of the laws ; and where, under the 
protection of the prior of the abbey of Saint Germain, 
they carried on their baneful intrigues. 

In 1557 a popular tumult broke out in Paris, 
which showed how numerous the reformers had be- 
come ; and what was more significant of the spirit 
of the times, it proved that, among their partizans, 
families of the highest rank and consideration were 
included. In the following year an event occurred, 
w T hich put beyond all doubt the extent and influence of 
the Huguenot confederacy. Francis De Coligny, lord 
of Andelot, and of the illustrious house of Chatillon, 
was denounced to the king, as having embraced the 
heresy of Calvin. D' Andelot was a colonel in the 
French infantry, and had a high military reputation ; 
nor did the courage he had shown in the field forsake 



12 



INTRODUCTION. 



him when summoned to the presence of his sovereign, 
the arbiter of his fortunes and even of his life. 
When questioned as to his creed, he fearlessly made 
this noble answer : " Sire, in matters of religion I 
can use no disguise, nor vainly attempt to deceive 
God. Dispose as you please of my life, my property, 
and my appointments ; but my soul, independent of 
every other sovereign, is only subject to the Creator 
from whom I received it, and whom alone I ought 
to obey under present circumstances, as my most 
powerful master : in a word, I will die rather than 
go to mass." 

The king was roused to fury by this uncompro- 
mising defiance, and, in the first burst of his rage, 
menaced D'Andelot with death ; but he was dissuaded 
from this extreme act, and commuted the punishment 
into banishment from the court, with an order that 
the heretic should not move from his own estate, 
lest he might corrupt others. This sentence had no 
moral effect : it was known that many were as guilty 
as D'Andelot, though few might have as frankly 
confessed their guilt ; and it seemed partial and un- 
generous to make an example of a man who had 
shown so much honour and daring. The usual effects 
of persecution followed ; the obnoxious doctrines 
increased in popularity, and the Calvinists, now 
secure of the support of D'Andelot, and hoping that 
all the members of his powerful family would imitate 
his example, fearlessly assembled in large numbers at 
the Pre-aux-Clercs, situate in the modern faubourg 
Saint Germain^ and, at that time, one of the most 
frequented promenades in Paris. There they sang 
the psalms of Marot in the open air : it became the 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

fashion to visit these re -unions ; some of the young 
courtiers went to ridicule the fanatics, as they were 
then called ; others repaired thither from mere curi- 
osity ; while Antony de Bourbon, King of Navarre, 
and, Jane d'Albret, his wife, animated the preachers 
by their presence, and scarcely disguised their at- 
tachment to the new opinions. The Catholic clergy 
now became seriously alarmed at the impending 
danger, for heresy had spread from the capital 
throughout the provinces, infecting the court, the 
army, the judicial tribunals, and even their own order, 
many of whom lent a friendly ear to the doctrines 
of the Reformation, as it released the priests from 
the restraint of celibacy. They urged the king to 
draw the sword against the Huguenots, and persuaded 
him to sign an inglorious peace with Spain, that he 
might direct the whole power of the crown against 
his dissenting subjects. The royal vengeance was 
first levelled against five of the counsellors of the 
parliament of Paris, who had openly professed the 
new religion : they were put under arrest : among 
the number was the famous Anne Du Bouro- of an 
illustrious family in Auvergne, and nephew of a 
chancellor of France. The king ordered their trial 
to take place without delay, particularly that of 
Du Bourg, saying " that he wished to see him burned 
before his own eyes." 

Nor were these the solitary victims of regal dis- 
pleasure and ecclesiastical intolerance. Informers 
were encouraged, by the prospect of reward, to de- 
nounce the innocent : a casual or ambiguous phrase 
was a sufficient warrant for arrest ; suspicion was 
equivalent to proof: whoever sheltered a reputed 



14 



INTRODUCTION. 



heretic was deemed to be a participator in his crime ; 
all confidence between man and man was lost ; even 
the members of the same family distrusted each 
other ; all the worst passions of human nature were 
let loose, and France became an extended dungeon. 
The inexorable severity of the government threatened 
the complete extirpation of Calvinism, when an un- 
foreseen event changed the aspect of the times. 

On the 25th of June, Henry II. was wounded in 
the eye by the Count De Montgommeri, captain of 
the Scotch guard, in a tournament : the injury was 
so severe that his life was immediately despaired of. 
He lingered to the 10th of July following, when he 
expired, leaving four sons, all minors, a queen- 
mother jealous of ruling and eager to be appointed 
sole regent, a court divided by factions, and a peo- 
ple disunited by difference of creed. With his scep- 
tre he bequeathed to his posterity the religious wars 
of France. 



15 



REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 



CHAPTER I. 

Francis II. ascended the throne of France on the 
10th of July, 1559, being only sixteen years of age. 
Notwithstanding his extreme youth, he was already 
married to Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland : their 
feeble hands were unable to hold the reins of govern- 
ment, and the several factions into which the court 
w r as divided immediately conspired to seize on the 
administration of affairs. 

During the eleven days that elapsed from that on 
which the late king was wounded to his death, Anne 
de Montmorenci, constable of France, the minister 
and favourite of Henry II., foreseeing that his in- 
fluence would decline under a new reign, wrote to 
the princes of the blood royal, Antony de Bourbon, 
King of Navarre, and the Prince of Conde, who were 
the next heirs to the throne after Francis and his 
brothers, urging them to coalesce with him in fram- 
ing a new government. Montmorenci was able in 
the cabinet and experienced in the field ; but these 
qualities were stained by bigotry and intolerance. 
He had warmly and sincerely advocated the persecu- 
tion of the Calvinists, — conduct which had gained 



16 REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 

him the confidence of Henry II. ; and as he had sup- 
ported Diana of Poitiers, Duchess of Valentinois, 
against all the private intrigues and open affronts of 
Catharine di Medicis, the royal consort, his power 
was almost unbounded. But he had now two ene- 
mies to dread, the queen-mother and the family of 
Guise ; the former sought to avenge herself on the 
constable for having espoused the party of Diana of 
Poitiers; the latter were his personal and political 
rivals, and, as Montmorenci stood in the path of 
their ambition, they resolved on his ruin. 

Francis, Duke of Guise, was one of the most re- 
markable men of his age. As a soldier, he had dis- 
tinguished himself by the capture of Calais from the 
English, and by his defence of Metz against the 
Spaniards. He possessed, in an eminent degree, 
most of those external advantages which captivate 
the multitude — a commanding figure, an expressive 
physiognomy, a dignified and martial bearing ; while 
the affability of his manners, the courtesy of his ad- 
dress, and the chivalrous character of his sentiments, 
rendered him the delight and ornament of the court. 
He was a sincere and generous friend, but his enmity 
was stern and bitter ; still, when he had gained the 
victory, he was merciful and rarely sought revenge. 

His ambitious schemes were powerfully supported 
by his four brothers, each of whom was as eager as 
himself to share the patronage and emoluments of office. 
These were Claude, Duke of Aumale ; Louis, Car- 
dinal of Lorraine ; Francis, Grand-Prior of France ; 
and Rene, Marquis of Elbeuf. The Guises were of 
the house of Lorraine, which had only established 
itself in France in the reign of Francis L, so that 



REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 17 

many looked upon them rather as foreigners than 
subjects. They were the uncles of Mary Stuart, 
who ruled her husband Francis I., and the influence 
of the niece was wholly thrown into the scale of her 
aspiring relations. 

It was against this powerful confederacy that 
Montmorenci had to struo-o-le, and it was the convic- 
tion he felt of his inability to resist it single-handed 
that had induced him to invite the Bourbon princes 
to join his party. Ever since the revolt of the fa- 
mous Constable of Bourbon, 1 who had levied war 
against France, that family, by an express law, had 
been excluded from all posts of trust or respon- 
sibility, and Montmorenci now hoped to conciliate 
them to his interests, by again restoring them to 
political power ; — a measure on his part of pure ex- 
pediency, for he had never attempted to effect this 
act of justice in the reign of Henry II., during which 
his authority was unbounded. Montmorenci, in 
fact, cared nothing for the Bourbons, except as use- 
ful instruments with which he might assail the 
Guises ; and he put his plan into execution by con- 
trasting their claim with those of the princes of Lor- 
raine, who scarcely deserved the name of French- 
men. 

Antony de Bourbon, who, by his marriage with 
Jane D'Albret, became King of Navarre, was weak, 
indolent, vacillating, and too fond of ease to take 
any active part in the troubled and stirring scenes 
which were soon to convulse the kingdom with civil 
war. He was only roused from his habitual torpor 
by the hope of recovering that portion of his realm 

1 In the reign of Francis I. 

C 



18 REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 

which had been seized and retained by Spain ; and 
as his success entirely depended on the armed inter- 
ference of France, he was easily drawn into the 
ranks of the ruling minister of the day by the 
most hollow promises of assistance. 

His brother, the Prince of Conde, who had mar- 
ried a niece of the constable Montmorenci, was a 
man of more determined character, and though not 
possessed of those high qualities which are required in 
the chief of a party, he compensated the defects of an 
ordinary intellect, by great moral courage and inflex- 
ible integrity. He was too frank and open to shine 
as a diplomatist in an age when fraud and mendacity 
were the prime merits of a negociator, and though 
he espoused Calvinism (or rather the right of pri- 
vate judgment in matters of religion, without a rigid 
adherence to that particular creed) with zeal, he 
neither quitted his habitual tastes nor abandoned his 
mistresses. His finances were scanty, but he was 
liberal to his followers ; and when life was at stake, 
or honour in peril, he displayed a magnanimous 
bearing, which commanded the respect even of his 
enemies. 

The Prince of Conde w T as the intimate friend of 
the eldest of the Chatillons, known in history as 
Admiral de Coligny. 1 This latter had once been the 

i The office of admiral, or high -admiral, of France, is supposed 
to have been created in 1337, during the reign of Charles the 
Fair. Valin, in his elaborate Commentary on the French Mari- 
time Ordinance of 1681, gives a list of these officers, amounting 
in number to thirty-eight, down to 1626, at which date Henri 
de Montmorenci resigned the office into the hands of Louis 
XIII., or rather into those of Richelieu, who suppressed it 
by an ordinance, dated January the 16th, 1627, and also that 



REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 19 

friend of the Duke of Guise, but they had now be- 
come the most bitter enemies, nor was their mutual 
hatred ever appeased. Few men have exhibited a 
character so stern, so unbending, so intractable as 
the admiral ; he listened neither to parley or com- 
promise, but his resolution once taken, he remained 
inflexible and unaccommodating. His brother, D' An- 
delot, whose fierce reply to Henry II. sufficiently 
denotes the severe haughtiness of his mind, had in- 
duced the admiral to embrace the reformed opinions ; 
and, as soon as his judgment was satisfied of their 
truth, he supported them with a zeal, a constancy, 
and a perseverance which made him the idol and 
champion of the Huguenots. " Coligny and D'An- 
delot," says Brantome, " were both endowed with 
such imperturbable equanimity and coolness, that 
it was almost impossible to excite them to passion, 
and their countenances never betrayed their secret 
thoughts nor inward emotions." l The third brother 
was Odet, Cardinal Chatillon and Bishop of Beau- 
vais, a keen observer of the world, mild in address, 
polished in manners, an adept in the intrigues of the 

of constable of France. The latter office was never revived, 
but that of admiral was restored, in 1669, by Louis XIV., 
in the person of the Count of Vermandois. Richelieu, in 
suppressing this office, created another, under the name of the 
grand master of navigation, and appointed himself the 
first of this order, which was continued down to 1669. The 
office of admiral, revived by Louis XIV., though clothed 
with great power, was very inferior to what it was in 
the ancient days of the monarchy. It was again suppressed at 
the Revolution of 1791, and revived by Napoleon in 1804. It 
was given to the Duke of Augouleme in 1814, but it merely 
gave him precedence over all other naval officers. 
1 Brantome, t. viii. p. 163. 

c 2 



20 REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 

court, and possessed of all those winning arts and 
graces which conciliate an enemy and fix a friend. 
The talents of this family, who were united among 
themselves, their connexions, their high offices, and 
the vast extent of their correspondence with the 
reformers of France, England, and Germany, ren- 
dered them most formidable to the house of Guise. 

Such was the state of parties at the commence- 
ment of the reign of Henry II., and such were the 
leading men who aspired to control the government. 
But another competitor for power remained : it was 
Catharine di Medicis, the queen-mother, who, un- 
able to get herself declared sole regent, attempted so 
to balance the contending factions, that she might 
become the umpire of their differences. Her present 
policy was to give the weight of her personal influ- 
ence to those who would concede to her the largest 
share of authority, though she secretly determined 
never to depress their opponents so low as to deprive 
them of the means of resistance. Thus she hoped to 
be the arbiter of France. 

Francis I. had exercised absolute power : he 
obtained this despotic preponderance by disgracing 
and humbling those nobles who gave him umbrage, 
before they had gained sufficient influence to render 
themselves formidable. The last advice he gave his 
son was to distrust the house of Guise, whose talents 
and courage were of an order to endanger the safety 
of the monarchy. In applying the same policy to 
all the other great families who had risen to a 
dangerous elevation, Henry II. would have pursued 
a course of conduct which would have concentrated 
in his own hands all the effective strength of the 



REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 21 

government ; but that prince was incapable of acting 
with proper energy. Sovereign arbiter of the fortunes 
of his courtiers, surrounded by flatterers and slaves, 
he saw nothing but his palace,, forgot his country, 
and passed his time in mere pleasure : he entrusted 
the guardianship of his throne to the Duchess of 
Yalentinois and her favourites. Thus the Guises 
exercised royal authority as the ministers of the 
king's mistress. 

At the death of Henry II. the Guises, who had 
contrived to marry their niece to his successor, were 
more powerful than they had ever been. Their 
relations and friends filled all the high offices in the 
court, in the capital, and in the provinces ; and so 
complete was their ascendancy, that the ancient 
mayors of the palace seem to have been revived. 
They effectually undermined the influence of Mont- 
morenci, by describing him as a man of austere 
habits, harsh and imperious, who would banish all 
amusements from the court. The princes of the blood 
were represented as factious and ambitious, and the 
youthful monarch was reminded of the revolt of the 
constable, their ancestor ; and it was more than hinted 
that his descendants might imitate his example. 
Nor did they neglect to prejudice Francis against 
the Chatillons, as tainted with the heresy that D' Ande- 
lot had so unequivocally avowed. They thus suc- 
ceeded in securing to themselves the whole administra- 
tion of affairs, and conciliated Catharine by the 
sacrifice of the Duchess of Yalentinois, to whom 
they were indebted for all their influence during the 
preceding reign. The Duke of Guise assumed the 
command of the army, and the Cardinal of Lorraine 



22 REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 

took charge of the finances. Montmorenci was 
ordered to retire to his estates, for having supported 
the late king's mistress against the queen, an act of 
which the Guises were, equally guilty, while the 
Prince of Conde was dispatched to Spain to ratify 
the treaty of peace, — an honourable exile, to which he 
reluctantly submitted. 

From his estate at Chantilly, Montmorenci in- 
trigued against his rivals. The King of Navarre was 
on his journey from Beam to Paris, and very many 
of the ancient nobles joined him at different stations 
on his route ; all were incensed at the elevation of the 
Guises, who were stigmatized as foreigners by the 
friends of the old constable, while the Calvinists 
denounced them as enemies to the reformed doctrines; 
and thus they were exposed to the united attack of 
a political and religious confederacy. Dardois, the 
confidential secretary of Montmorenci, kept up an 
active correspondence with the chiefs of the discon- 
tented party, who, under his superintendence, assem- 
bled at Vendome to deliberate on the most prudent 
measures they ought to adopt. The expulsion of the 
Lorraines from power was unanimously voted, but 
much difference of opinion existed as to the best 
mode of carrying that resolution into effect. The 
most ardent proposed force ; the more moderate 
recommended negociation: after much discussion, 
the pacific plan prevailed. The King of Navarre 
was deputed to repair to court as their ambassador, 
demand an audience of Francis, expose to him the 
feeling of the country, the sentiments of the no- 
bles, and the tyranny of his uncles. 

The secret emissaries of the Guises had advised 



REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 



23 



them of the meeting at Vendome, and of the policy 
there resolved upon. Thus prepared, they easily 
disconcerted the schemes of the confederates. When 
the King of Navarre sought a personal interview 
with the king, he was referred to his uncles, who 
knowing the weakness of his character, dexterously 
practised on his credulity, by diverting his attention 
from the demands of the confederates to his own 
pretensions on the provinces seized by Spain. They 
fed him with hopes of assistance, which they never 
intended to realize ; and, after long delays, showed 
him a letter from Philip II. in which that mo- 
narch offered to put down the Huguenots by force. 
This stroke of policy alarmed Antony, who feared 
that he might fall the first victim, and lose the 
principality of Beam : he accordingly renounced all 
the projects resolved upon at Vendome, and was 
easily persuaded to escort Elizabeth of France to 
Madrid, where that princess, affianced to Don Carlos, 
the son of Philip, was sacrificed to the father. 
The King of Navarre, at first received with every 
mark of courtesy, flattered himself with the restora^ 
tion of his lost dominions ; by degrees his reception 
at court became cold, and his expectations dwindled 
into distrust : at length, wearied by protracted ne- 
gociation, he returned to Beam, resolved to pass the 
remainder of his life remote from scenes of political 
turmoil and intrigue. 

The Guises, havino- thus defeated the attack of 
their enemies, became insolent with victory. The 
duke, retaining the command of the army, declared 
Tiimself grand-master of the royal household, an 



24 



REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 



office of which he despoiled Montmorency : he la- 
vished on his creatures the ribband of Saint Michael, 
which became so common as to be stigmatized as 
the " collar of beasts ; " but the arrogance of the 
Cardinal of Lorraine completed the unpopularity of 
his family. The court being at Fontainbleau, many 
went thither to request pensions, appointments, and 
promotion; the Cardinal ordered a gallows to be 
erected in front of the palace, on which he threatened 
to hang any petitioner who did not quit the neigh- 
bourhood in twenty-four hours. The immense 
crowd, nobles and commoners, thus disappointed and 
insulted, execrated the foreign princes, who forcibly 
banished native Frenchmen from the presence of 
their sovereign, and Catholic and Huguenot vowed 
vengeance for the affront. 

Secure in the favour of the king, and emboldened 
by success, the Guises determined to strike a vigor- 
ous blow at the reformers, and ordered the trial of 
Anne Du Bourg, who had remained in prison since 
the death of Henry II. The accused, though now 
deserted by the parliament, which had been terrified 
into submission, defended himself with constancy 
and courage : he challenged the president, Minard, 
whom he denounced as a venal instrument of the 
Princes of Lorraine : nevertheless, Minard took his 
seat with the rest of the judges ; but on the 12th of 
September, 1559, he was assassinated in the street, 
by a pistol-ball, on returning from the hall of justice. 
Ten days afterwards Du Bourg was hanged, and 
his dead body consumed in the flames. He endured 
his fate with the heroism of a martyr, and the punish- 



REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 



25 



ment of this magistrate, whose moral integrity- 
was unimpeached, kindled anew the zeal of the 
Calvinists. 

The Jesuits, ever watchful to obtain a footing in 
the kingdom, now emerged from their hiding-places; 
and though denounced by the parliament, the Bishop 
of Paris, and the Faculty of Theology, once more 
sought the protection of the Cardinal of Lorraine. 
He and his brothers openly protected them ; and they 
presented a petition to the king's privy council, in 
which it was declared that the Jesuits claimed no 
privileges hostile to episcopal supremacy, the autho- 
rity of curates, colleges, or universities, or the liber- 
ties of the Gallican church. 

After the matter had been debated before the 
council, the king granted his letters patent for the 
regular organization of the petitioners, and for the 
ratification of the bulls they had received from the 
Pope. The Bishop of Paris, however, added six 
articles to the following effect : — That the new body 
should assume some other title than that of Brothers 
of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits; that they should not 
be allowed to change, modify, or recast their consti- 
tutions ; that they should be subjected to the bishops 
without any power of appeal ; and be prohibited 
from expounding the holy Scriptures till they had 
received a certificate from the Faculties of Theology, 
the bishops, or the universities. Such were the 
conditions on which the Bishop of Paris granted his 
consent. The act of incorporation was then regis- 
tered, but with an additional clause, which plainly 
marked the distrust of the court itself ; it was to the 
following effect : — that if, in the course of time, any 



26 REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 

thing should result prejudical to the prerogative of 
the king or the rights of the people, the constitu- 
tion of the Jesuits should be reformed. 

The legal recognition of this tribunal, who thus 
obtained a regular incorporation through the patron- 
age of the Princes of Lorraine, filled the reformers 
with new alarms ; for they justly suspected that the 
Jesuits would ally themselves with the house of 
Guise, and become the active opponents of Calvin- 
ism. The discontented nobility and the religious 
reformers at once prepared a fresh confederacy, the 
former, to destroy the political usurpation of the 
Guises, the latter, to protect themselves against a 
repetition of the severities threatened by the prece- 
dent of Du Bourg. A meeting accordingly was 
held at La Ferte, a castle belonging to the Prince 
of Conde, and situate on the frontiers of Picardy. 
It was on this occasion that the prince resigned him- 
self entirely to the views of Admiral Coligny, though 
he is said to have annexed this clause of reservation to 
his engagements ; " provided nothing be done or 
attempted against God, the king, his brothers, or the 
state. " x These restraining words, however, had no 
real weight, nor did they in the least influence the 
deliberations of the assembly, who resolved on the 
famous enterprise known as the " Conspiracy of 
Amboise." 

History has recorded few undertakings of a 
similar character, in which the design was more 
extensive, the motives more just, the plan more 



1 Veritable Inventaire de THistoire de France, par Jean Des 
Serres. t. i. p. 681. 



REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 2/ 

skilful, the means more adequate, and the failure 
more miserable. The confederates determined to 
get possession of the royal person, to arrest the 
Princes of Lorraine, and vest the government in the 
Prince of Conde. There was no intention to injure 
the king, but simply to release him from the tyranny 
of his uncles ; and the distinct avowal of this princi- 
ple won the confidence of all loyal gentlemen in 
France, who regarded the Guises as foreigners. 
The leaders, however, held out another bait to the 
Calvinists. who were invited to take up arms in de- 
fence of their religion ; and thus Catholics and Hu- 
guenots laboured for the same end, though without 
being impelled by the same motives. 

As secrecy alone could render this enterprise suc- 
cessful, it was considered dangerous to put pro- 
minently forward either the Prince of Conde or the 
Chatillons, the choice of whom would have been 
sure to awaken suspicion. To discharge this im- 
portant trust, a gentleman, named La Penaudie, of 
a good family in Perigord, was selected ; a devoted 
partizan. who had his own personal injuries to 
avenge, and who, when a refugee at Geneva, had 
formed an extensive acquaintance with the exiled 
and voluntarily expatriated Calvinists. La Renau- 
die received ample instructions for his guidance : he 
freely told those in whom he placed confidence that, 
when affairs were ripe for action, the Prince of Conde 
would openly place himself at their head ; nor did he 
scruple to confirm the wavering by saying that he 
acted under the sanction of the queen-mother. He 
urged every gentleman to raise as many soldiers as 
his finances would permit ; and the poorer classes, at 



28 



REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 



the instigation of the preachers, readily enlisted for 
a service which they believed to be holy, on the as- 
surance of their pastors. 

In consequence of the enfeebled health of Francis 
II., his physicians recommended him to pass the 
spring of 1560 at Blois, as the climate of that town 
was best suited to his sickly constitution. When 
La Renaudie heard of this intention, he summoned 
all the influential conspirators to meet him at Nantes 
in the month of January of that year, and as the 
parliament of Brittany was fixed to assemble in that 
city, an annual concourse of strangers was not cal- 
culated to excite any suspicion. He there addressed 
them in a most inflammatory harangue, in which he 
commented on the history of the Princes of Lorraine, 
from their first establishment in France; — affirmed that 
they rose to dignity and power on the ruins of the most 
ancient native families ; — accused them of a treason- 
able wish to subvert the constitution, and attri- 
buted wholly and solely to them the persecu- 
tion of the Calvinists, the disgrace of the nobles, 
the poverty of the people, and all the disorders 
which convulsed the country at home, and menaced 
her with dishonour abroad. He even declared that 
the life of the king was not safe in their hands. 
" Already," said La Renaudie, " they are circulating 
reports of the debility of his constitution, in order that 
they may with greater safety put him to death at 
their pleasure ; then, finding none to oppose them, 
as the princes of the blood and the nobles are ban- 
ished from the court, they will exterminate the rest 
of the royal family, which consists of mere children, 
and seat themselves on the throne. For my part," 



REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 29 

continued La Renaudie with increased vehemence, 
" I swear, I protest, I call God to witness, that I 
will neither think, nor speak, nor act against the 
king, the queen his mother, the princes his brothers, 
nor any member of his own blood ; but I will de- 
fend to the last gasp of life the majesty of the 
throne, the authority of the laws, and the liberty of 
my country, against the tyranny of foreigners." 1 

The whole audience shared the enthusiasm of the 
speaker ; each bound himself by a solemn oath to 
expel the Guises, and denounced the most furious 
imprecations on those who should dare to divulge 
the secret. La Renaudie ordered them to repair to 
Blois on the 15th of March, and they then departed 
to their respective provinces. 

The ruin of the Princes of Lorraine now seemed 
certain ; so strict was the caution of the confederates, 
that not a whisper of the meditated blow had tran- 
spired. The Guises took the king to Blois, and 
amused him with festivities, quite unconscious of 
the gulf that yawned beneath their feet ; but they 
were saved by the imprudence of their deadliest foe. 
La Renaudie had taken up his quarters in Paris, in 
the house of a friend, named Avenelles, an advocate 
by profession. Observing a most extraordinary 
number of visitors, who called daily on his guest, 
Avenelles became restless and inquisitive, and La 
Renaudie, never expecting to be betrayed, had the 
indiscretion to reveal his secret. Avenelles basely 
violated this confidence, by reporting all he had heard 
to the secretary of the Duke of Guise, who instantly 
dispatched a courier with the intelligence to Blois. 2 

1 Esprit de la Ligue, t. i. p. 39. 2 Davila, p. 22. 



30 REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 

As La Renaudie had merely stated the bare fact 
of a conspiracy, without entering into any details, the 
Guises were still ignorant from what quarter the 
blow would be levelled. Any regular system of de- 
fence, therefore, was impossible in the circumstances 
of the case ; but they had the precaution to remove 
to the small town of Amboise, in the vicinity of 
Blois, which was protected by a castle, and offered 
many advantages of position against a hostile attack. 
The suspicions of the privy-council, after floating 
from individual to individual, at last settled on the 
Chatillons, who were summoned to the royal pre- 
sence ; they obeyed with alacrity, hoping that their 
presence might aid the success of the plot. 

Admiral Coligny was introduced into the king's 
cabinet, and the Guises hoped that he would commit 
himself at the interview, but his habitual caution 
did not forsake him. He denounced in general 
terms the system of administration, exposed the 
griefs of the people, and pleaded the cause of the 
Huguenots. The chancellor Olivier espoused his 
cause, and an edict was drawn up and published on 
the 12th of March, in favour of the Calvinists, ex- 
cluding, however, such preachers as might be con- 
victed of delivering sermons containing censures on 
the king, his brothers, the queen-mother, or the 
ministers. 

When La Renaudie knew that the court had 
changed its residence from Blois to Amboise, he 
fixed on the 16th of March, instead of the 15th, for 
the execution of his project. The Prince of Conde 
and the rest of his confederates punctually obeyed 
his orders ; but the Duke of Guise had the good for- 



REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 31 

tune to defeat the plans of the conspirators. 1 When 
the Huguenots attacked the town, every preparation 
had been made for resistance, and they were repulsed 
with great slaughter. La Renaudie rallied the fugi- 
tives, who returned gallantly to the charge, but their 
chief, surrounded by a party of royalists, after slay- 
ing or wounding several of his opponents, was 
struck dead by a bullet fired from a distance. The 
Guises triumphed ; they revoked the edict obtained 
by Coligny, arrested the Prince of Conde, com- 
manded that no quarter should be given, and hung 
their prisoners on a gallows erected in the principal 
square of the town. Those who escaped this death 
were condemned, without any trial, to be tied hand 
and foot and thrown into the Loire. 

As an illustration of the spirit of the age, and of 
the feelings which influenced persons of the highest 
rank, the following incident deserves to be recorded. 
During the battle, the Duke of Nemours recognized, 
at the head of a Calvinist squadron, a gentleman 
named Castelnau, for whom he entertained a warm 
esteem. He reined his horse, and asked his friend 
why he had taken up arms against the royal au- 
thority. " Our intention," replied Castelnau, " is 
not to make war against the king, but to present to 
him our humble remonstrances against the tyranny of 
the Guises." " If that be the case," replied Ne- 
mours, " sheath your weapon, and I promise you, 
on my honour, that you shall speak to the king, and 
I pledge myself for your safe return." Castelnau 

1 Davila saj^s, that a Captain Lignieres, one of the conspira- 
tors, went to Amboise, and revealed the whole secret to Catha- 
rine, even specifying the names of the principal conspirators. 



32 REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 

accepted these terms, and Nemours reduced his en- 
gagement into writing and signed it ; on which 
Castelnau followed him to Amboise. He was in- 
stantly seized and put into irons, and notwithstand- 
ing the most urgent entreaties of Nemours, he was 
sentenced to death, the Duke of Guise insisting that 
Nemours had no warrant to act as he had done. On 
this proceeding, Marshal De la Vielleville makes the 
following comment : " This caused the Duke of Ne- 
mours great uneasiness and vexation on account of 
his signature ; for had he only passed his word, he 
would have denied it, and given the lie to any man 
who had charged him with having plighted it, so 
valiant and generous was this nobleman" " A re- 
markable instance," observes Anquetil, "of the point 
of honour badly understood, which fears a crime less 
than the proof." 

Though the Guises had thus baffled their enemies, 
they felt that their triumph was incomplete, as they 
had only conquered the agents of the conspiracy, and 
not the principals, for it was certain that a conspiracy 
so extensive could never have been organized by 
La Renaudie alone. They rigidly examined his 
secretary, La Bigue, who doggedly refused to give 
any specific information, stating that La Renaudie 
kept his own secrets, and only entrusted him with 
general correspondence. The object of the ministers 
was to implicate the Prince of Conde, or at least to 
justify his arrest, but they failed on both points ; 
the prince himself expressed the liveliest indignation 
at the treatment he had received, and concluded a 
long speech in these words : " If any man has the 
audacity to affirm that I have instigated a revolt 



REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 33 

against the sacred person of the king, I will re- 
nounce the privilege of my rank, and attest my in- 
nocence by single combat." " And I," replied the 
Duke of Guise, " will not suffer so great a prince to 
be accused of so black a crime, and entreat you to 
accept me as your second." 

Thus terminated the conspiracy of Amboise, Guise 
being as convinced of the treachery of the prince, as 
Conde was sensible of the hypocrisy of the duke. 1 
A peace, ratified on such terms, was only the pre- 
lude to a future attack on the first convenient oppor- 
tunity, and that opportunity was soon found. How- 
ever, a temporary respite was given to persecution, 
and an ordinance was issued for the pardon of all 
crimes committed under the pretext of religion, 
provided the guilty returned within the pale of the 
Catholic church. 

The court now returned to Fontainbleau, and it 
was resolved to convene a meeting of all the princi- 
pal men of the country, without reference to party or 
creed, for the purpose of investigating the affairs of 
the nation, and applying a remedy to all proved 
grievances. The Montmorencis and the Chatillons 
attended ; but, fearful of some plot, they were accom- 
panied by a long train of armed cavaliers, the escort 

1 The Prince of Conde was liberated in the hope that the ap- 
parent confidence thus placed in his loyalty might throw the 
King of Navarre, the Constable, DAndelot, and the Vidame of 
Chartres off their guard, and thus enable the Guises to seize their 
persons, for they feared to put the prince to death, and leave so 
many of his friends alive to avenge him ; past examples having 
taught them that it is vain to cut down the body of a tree, how 
high or lofty soever, if there be any quick roots left which may 
send forth new sprouts." — Davila, p. 27. 



34 REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 

of the old constable alone amounting to eight hun- 
dred men. The King of Navarre and the Prince of 
Conde, though summoned, were urgently entreated 
to absent themselves, and they followed this prudent 
counsel. The debates at Fontainbleau were long 
and animated : mutual recriminations were haughtily 
interchanged ; and each speaker, while he denounced 
the opposite party as enemies to the state, claimed 
for himself and friends the merit of being loyal to 
the king, and devoted to the true interests of re- 
ligion. Under these circumstances the meeting was 
dissolved, and the convocation of the states-general 
of the kingdom decided upon, to whom all the politi- 
cal and religious points of controversy were to be re- 
ferred. 

Although the Bourbon princes had absented them- 
selves from Fontainbleau, the Guises strongly sus- 
pected that some of their emissaries were present, 
who were empowered to communicate with the 
leaders of the opposition. From information re- 
ceived, they arrested a Gascon gentleman, named 
La Sague ; they put him to the torture, when he 
confessed that the King of Navarre and the Prince 
of Conde would take the field, as soon as the states - 
general were convened at Orleans, and insist on the 
death or the expulsion of the Princes of Lorraine. 
The Bourbons were soon apprized of the apprehen- 
sion of La Sague, but they were at first uncertain 
whether he had made any disclosures. The imprison- 
ment and execution of the Vidame of Chartres, one 
of their most faithful adherents, convinced them that 
their intrigues had been discovered. The king now 
specially summoned them to (repair to Orleans, and 



REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 35 

to have refused obedience would have been deemed 
an overt act of rebellion and constructive treason ; to 
attend the states -general placed their liberties, per- 
haps their lives, in peril. In this embarrassment, it 
was determined that the Prince of Conde alone 
should proceed to Orleans, while the King of Navarre 
should secretly organize the troops of their party, 
to be in readiness to act in case violence was offered 
to his brother. The prince arrived at Orleans on 
the 30th of October, 1560. 

The Guises were fully prepared for a complete vic- 
tory. They had persuaded the king, by perverting 
the facts of La Sague's confession, that the Bourbons 
had conspired against the royal family, and urged 
him, for the sake of his personal safety, to arrest the 
Prince of Conde. To this advice the irritated mo- 
narch lent a willing ear : he ordered Conde into his 
presence, reproached him with his crimes, and with- 
out deigning to hear any reply, commanded his im- 
mediate imprisonment. His trial quickly followed, 
before the chancellor and some commissioners chosen 
from the parliament. The prince protested against 
the competency of this tribunal, demanding, as a 
prince of the blood, to be tried by the king in person 
and the peers of the realm ; this privilege, though 
perfectly legal, and strictly in accordance with the 
letter and spirit of the constitution, was refused, and 
he was condemned to death. 

When the sentence was made public, his relatives 
importuned the court for his pardon, but they 
pleaded in vain. His wife, Eleonora de Roye, 
niece to Montmorenci, accompanied by her children, 
threw herself on her knees before the king, who 

d 2 



36 REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 

sternly answered, " Your husband has assailed the 
crown and conspired against my life." In despair, 
the princess implored the intercession of the Guises. 
" It is our duty," they said, " to strike off the head 
of heresy and rebellion at one blow." 

The King of Navarre was equally active to save 
the life of his brother : he even humbled himself to 
the cardinal of Lorraine, by whom he was rudely re- 
pulsed. Bourbon was summoned into the royal 
presence, but being informed that assassins were 
posted in different apartments of the palace, who 
had received orders to murder him at the least sign 
from the monarch, he hesitated to obey the man- 
date, nor did he yield before he had received three 
citations. On departing for this perilous journey, 
he said to one of his confidential friends, " Duty 
compels me to go. I will defend myself to my last 
breath ; and if I fall, take my shirt, stained with my 
blood, carry it to my son, and may life abandon 
him sooner than the desire of revenge." 1 He was 
presented to the king, listened calmly to his reproofs, 
replied with modesty, and retired unharmed. As 
he was crossing the presence-chamber, he heard the 
Duke of Guise, who was incensed at his escape, ex- 
claim in an under-tone, speaking of the young king, 
" Oh the fool, the coward ! What a contemptible 
monarch we have ! " 

Disappointed in their hopes of arresting the King 
of Navarre, the Guises resolved to wreak their ven- 
geance on the captive Prince of Conde ; his death- 
warrant was already signed by several of the par- 
liamentary commissioners, before whom he had been 
« De Thou. 



REIGN OF FRANCIS II. 37 

tried, but the royal signature had not been affixed 
to the fatal instrument. 1 The health of the king was 
now completely shattered, and his life hung by a 
thread : the friends of the prisoner still had hopes 
that the demise of the monarch would occur before 
all the formalities requisite for his execution could 
be completed, and they urged him to propose some 
amicable terms to the Princes of Lorraine ; but Conde 
proudly answered, " I will ask no terms but at the 
point of the lance ;" a defiance which must have de- 
stroyed all hope of escape, had not Francis II. sud- 
denly expired. He died on the 5th of December, 
1560, at the early age of seventeen, too young and 
inexperienced to be responsible for the misfortunes of 
his brief reign. 

1 Davila positively asserts that the execution was deferred by 
the Guises, to see if they could catch in the same net the con- 
stable, who, being earnestly called upon, did not appear, and 
also to involve in the same punishment the King of Navarre, 
against whom no sufficient evidence to justify his condemnation 
could be adduced. 



38 



KEIGN OF CHARLES IX, 

FROM HIS ACCESSION TO THE PEACE OF SAINT- 
GERM AIN-EN-L A YE . 



CHAPTER II. SECTION I. 

Charles IX. succeeded to the throne in the eleventh 
year of his age. The death of his brother Francis 
completely changed the relative position of parties, 
and the varied struggles for power, by the leading 
men of the several factions, rendered his reign one of 
the most calamitous in history. But before entering 
into details, we shall rapidly notice the political 
causes which gave a new direction to the system of 
government. 

The king being a minor, it became necessary to 
establish a regency. To vest it entirely in the 
Guises, or the princes of the blood, or the Chatillons, 
was impracticable, and equally hopeless was any 
amicable co alition between the Lorraines and the 
Bourbons. The queen-mother, as natural guardian 
to her son, aspired to this high office ; and she was 
zealously encouraged in her views by the chancellor, 
Michael De FHopital, a magistrate of profound learn- 
ing, incorruptible integrity, and pure patriotism. 
He clearly showed her that the jealousies of both par- 
ties would lead them to recognize her as regent — the 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 39 

Guises, from an apprehension that the King of Na- 
varre, as first prince of the blood, might be elected, — 
the Bourbons, from a fear lest they might be re- 
jected as labouring under an accusation of treason. 
The judgment of the chancellor proved correct ; 
each of the rivals acknowledged the supremacy of 
Catharine, who was advised by De THopital to 
keep both in check, curbing faction while she at- 
tended to the general welfare of the nation. 

The death of Francis had greatly weakened the 
power of the Princes of Lorraine, for their niece, 
Mary Stuart, who had been their chief support dur- 
ing the present reign, was now without influence. 
The command of the army was taken from the Duke 
of Guise, and the King of Navarre appointed lieu- 
tenant-general of the kingdom. The Prince of 
Conde was released from prison, and, as a matter of 
form, retired to Beam for a short period, during 
which his innocence was openly acknowledged. 
The nobles who had been disgraced under Francis 
returned to court, and among them the old constable 
Montmorenci, who resumed his ancient functions 
and regained his former honours. He took his seat 
at the council-board, with the two princes of the 
blood, the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lor- 
raine, between all of whom a rankling hatred still 
existed, and which threatened fresh convulsions ; but 
Catharine foolishly hoped to hold the scales equally 
poised between these implacable enemies. Their 
first measures were indeed judicious : they released 
all persons who had been imprisoned for heresy, and 
restored their property ; a general amnesty was also 
proclaimed : but the scene was soon changed. 



40 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

While this reconstruction of the cabinet was 
being effected, the states-general continued their 
sittings at Orleans. De THopital implored the as- 
sembly to adopt such measures as would secure in- 
ternal peace, insisting that differences in religious 
opinion ought not to divide the subjects of the 
crown into hostile factions, or kindle civil war. The 
president of the nobles demanded the reform of the 
court, of the clergy, and the magistracy ; maintain- 
ing that the members of his own order alone dis- 
charged their duty to the state. The speaker of the 
third estate, or the commons, inveighed bitterly 
against the bishops and priests, while the orator 
of the clergy denounced the Huguenots, and im- 
plored the king to use his prerogative for the extir- 
pation of heresy. The Calvinists shuddered at this 
harangue, which they stigmatized as the signal for 
massacre and spoliation, and the denunciator was 
compelled to make a public apology to the leaders 
of the Reformers. These several speeches led to no 
practical results ; but a motion made by the King of 
Navarre was of a more serious character. He pro- 
posed a searching inquiry into the financial system 
of the last reign, and a special return of all excessive 
gratifications in money or lands to the court favour- 
ites, with a resolution that the recipients should re- 
store the grants made to them. The whole audience 
felt that this was an indirect blow struck at the 
Guises, and the partizans of the Bourbons and the 
Lorraines at once prepared themselves for another 
trial of strength. 

The imminent hazard which the prince of Conde 
had run, his high birth, his zeal and courage, and 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 41 

the wide breach which separated him from the 
Guises, made him the idol of his party, who now de- 
termined to strike a decisive blow at their enemies. 
They demanded the immediate banishment of the 
Princes of Lorraine from the court, and from all of- 
fices of trust and authority, declaring that if this 
were not conceded, they would march to Paris, con- 
vene the parliament, and proclaim the King of Xa- 
varre regent of the kingdom. These terms being re- 
jected, the Bourbon princes, Montmorenci and the 
Chatillons, and all the nobles of their party, pre- 
pared to put their menace into execution ; but their 
scheme was baffled by the chancellor De THopital, 
the only statesman of the time free from the influ- 
ence of mere party spirit, and who desired the good 
of his country irrespective of self, or the ascendency 
of any particular faction. De THopital advised the 
king to summon Montmorenci into his presence, and 
command him, under penalty of his high displea- 
sure, not to quit the court. The old courtier dared 
not disobey the royal wishes, so peremptorily ex- 
pressed : he remained, and the others were con- 
strained to follow his example. 

The states-general, convened at Orleans, were 
not yet dissolved, but all business was suspended, in 
order that a separate assembly might be held in 
every province, from each of which a report was to 
be transmitted to Orleans, there to be examined and 
decided upon. Paris had already recorded its sen- 
timents, and specially demanded an account of all 
gratuities received by the Guises, the Duchess of 
,Valentinois, and Marshal Saint Andre, during the 
preceding reign, with a general sifting of the national 



42 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 



receipts and expenditure. This message from 
capital arrived at Fontainbleau a few days after 
Montmorenci had been ordered to remain at court, 
and it produced a complete change in his views, as 
one of his sons had married a daughter of the 
duchess, and he had himself shared largely in the 
public plunder. 

The Guises were perfectly aware of the feelings of 
Montmorenci, and as they were all menaced with 
a common danger, there was no difficulty of dropping 
all minor points of difference, and uniting together 
for the mutual defence of their respective properties. 
The love of money made them fast friends, and the 
same base motive induced Marshal Saint Andre to 
join their party. This officer had been the early 
companion and intimate friend of Henry II., and a 
servile instrument of Diana of Poitiers : he professed 
himself a true Catholic and a bitter enemy to the 
Calvinists, but the real motive of his character was 
avarice ; he feared the confiscation of the estates he 
had received through the favour of the king's mis- 
tress. The coalition of the Duke of Guise, Mont- 
morenci, and Marshal Saint Andre was called the 
Triumvirate. 

This faction had a powerful ally in the Spanish 
ambassador, who had a seat at the council, pretend- 
ing that his master, Philip II., had taken France 
under his protection, and such was the wretched 
state of the country, that this foreigner was tamely 
permitted to exult in his insolence, and have a voice 
in the affairs of the government. He was personally 
attached to the Princes of Lorraine, who sacrificed 
the honour and dignity of the crown to secure his 



the 



REIGN OF CliARLES IX. 43 

protection, for they hoped to attach the King of 
Navarre to their party, through the aid of the am- 
bassador, whose station enabled him to promise An- 
tony of Bourbon the amicable restoration of the pro- 
vinces of which he had been despoiled by Spain. 

The nation was now divided into two distinct 
parties ; the one, formed of the triumvirate and the 
Catholics; the other, composed of the Protestants, 
and those who, indifferent about religion, desired a 
political reform of the government. The queen- 
mother still pursued her usual policy, attempting to 
hold the rank of arbiter, by balancing the rivals, and 
as she now deemed the Protestants weaker than 
their opponents, she threw her influence into their 
scale. An edict, in favour of the Huguenots, was 
published July 1651, called the edict of July, which 
exempted them from the penalty of death without a 
regular judicial condemnation ; but even this indul- 
gence was accompanied by a clause which prohibited 
them from assembling in any part of the French do- 
minions. 

This edict was the pretext of a simulated reconcilia- 
tion between the Prince of Conde and the Duke of 
Guise ; they met at the palace, when the king de- 
sired the duke to declare how affairs had been man- 
aged at Orleans. Guise accused the late king of 
having peremptorily ordered the imprisonment of 
Conde ; on which the prince answered, looking ear- 
nestly at the duke, " Whoever put that affront on 
me, I hold him to be a scoundrel and villain." 
" And I also," replied the duke ; " but it does not 
regard me in the least." They then dined together, 
interchanged vows of perpetual friendship, and sepa- 
rated with the bitterest feelings of mutual hatred. 



44 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

It was now resolved to convene the famous con- 
ference of Poissy, and as it forms a remarkable 
epoch in the history of the religious wars of France, 
it merits particular attention. 

Long before the doctrines of Calvin had become 
popular in France, Germany, having embraced the 
opinions of Luther, had demanded the convocation of 
a general council to settle disputed points of or- 
thodoxy. Pope Paul III. yielded to this request, 
and in the year 1537, selected Mantua as the place 
of meeting ; but the sovereign duke of that city re- 
fused his consent, in consequence of which, the as- 
sembly was transferred to Vicenza, and postponed to 
1538. Various contingencies delayed the conference 
till 1542, when Paul convened the council of Trent, 
Thither the legates repaired, but so few bishops at- 
tended, that all proceedings were deferred to 1545. 
In the years 1546 and 1547, eight sessions were held. 
From that date the discussions languished to the 
death of Paul III. in 1549. He was succeeded by 
Julius III, in 1550, who re-established the council 
at Trent, when the sixteenth session was interrupted 
by the war of 1552. After an interval of two years, 
it was again convened by Paul IY. ; and his suc- 
cessor, Pius IY., ought undoubtedly to have fol- 
lowed his example, as Protestants and Catholics, in 
Germany and in France, eagerly desired an orthodox 
code of doctrine and discipline. But so long as this 
wish was simply expressed by petitions, remon- 
strances, and party writings, the pope remained in- 
active ; nor was he roused from this culpable lethargy 
till he was convined that, in default of a general 
council, a special one would be held. He then 
issued a bull for a convocation at Trent, at Easter 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 45 

1561 ; but the fitting time had passed. In the 
month of August of that year, the famous colloquy 
of Poissy was resolved upon in France, so called 
from a small village in which the parties met, at 
a short distance from Saint -Germain, where the 
royal family resided. 1 

The session opened on the 9th of September of the 
same vear. The king attended the first sitting;- ac- 
companied by the queen-mother, his elder brother, 
his sister, Margaret of Yalois, the princes of the blood, 
the ministers of state, and the great officers of the 
crown. The leading orator of the Catholics was the 
Cardinal of Lorraine, assisted by five cardinals and 
forty bishops; Theodore Beza was the spokesman 
of the Protestants, and he was accompanied by 
twelve Huguenot preachers. The Chancellor De 
L'Hopital opened the debates in a conciliatory 
speech, which breathed the spirit of a politician, 
rather than that of a theologian ; for, looking mainly 
at the peace of the country, he advised the Ca- 
tholics to make concessions to their opponents. 
This recommendation highly displeased several of 
the bishops, who demanded that the chancellor should 
pronounce his confession of faith, for he had long- 
been suspected, if not of heresy, at least of religious 
indifference. This demand, however, was overruled, 
and Theodore Beza was called on to state his 
opinions. 

Before noticing his address, it is advisable to 
state what were the points in controversy. They 
were reduced to two ; first, whether the Catholic 

1 Esprit de la Ligue. torn. i. p. 88. 



46 



REIGN OP CHARLES IX. 



apostolic church was the only true church, for had 
that assumption been admitted, the reformers must 
have been silenced, and if they denied it, they ex- 
posed themselves to the charge of being schismatics. 
The second turned on the doctrine of the eucharist, 
which admitted of three interpretations. The first 
is that professed by the church of Rome, which 
holds that after the consecration of the bread and 
wine, used in the sacrament of the holy supper, they 
are literally and absolutely transmuted into the 
veritable body and blood of Christ. This is called 
Transubstantiation. The second is that of Lu- 
ther, who maintained that the bread and wine, after 
consecration, still remained in their natural state, but 
become blended with the body and blood of Jesus 
Christ, and this he termed Constjbstantiation. 
The third is that of Calvin, who denied both tran- 
substantiation and consubstantiation, contending that 
the sacramental elements were merely symbols, and 
that Jesus Christ was only present in the eucharist 
through faith. 

Theodore Beza stepped forward into the middle 
of the hall, knelt down, and prayed to God to 
enlighten his mind, and inspire him with truth. 
He then professed his faith, and adduced numerous ar- 
guments to disprove the pretensions of the Catholics, 
who affirmed that their church alone was the true 
church. He was listened to with the deepest atten- 
tion, till he expressed his sentiments on the doctrine 
of the eucharist. He had already stated in a letter 
to Calvin, that Jesus Christ was no more in the 
sacrament than in the mud, " non magis in caend 
quam in cceno" and the coarseness of this expression 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 47 

had already given great offence. At the colloquy he 
varied the phrase, saying that Jesus Christ was as far 
from the sacramental elements, as the highest heavens 
were from the earth. This reminded the audience of 
his former language, and the Catholic benches put 
him down with vociferous clamour. 

The Cardinal de Tournon, one of the bitterest 
opponents of the reformers, suddenly started from 
his seat, and after declaring that he entirely disap- 
proved of the colloquy, and only had sanctioned it 
in deference to the wish of Catharine, exhorted the 
young king not to be led astray by the impetuous 
eloquence of Beza, but to suspend his judgment till 
he had heard the reply of the Catholic divines. 
He further pointed out the impropriety of the 
youthful monarch's attendance during the debates, 
as they involved questions above the capacity of his 
tender age : this last hint was taken and acted upon, 
for the king was never afterwards present. 

Beza was answered with great astuteness and 
erudition by the Cardinal of Lorraine, who was 
greeted with loud applause. When he had ceased 
speaking, the cardinals and bishops formed a circle 
round him, and declared that he had expounded 
the true Catholic faith, for which they were all ready 
to suffer martyrdom. Beza demanded to reply, 
but, as the hour was late, the conference was 
adjourned. 

When the disputants next assembled, they respec- 
tively adduced every possible argument for and 
against the unity and infallibility of the Romish 

1 Bossuet, Hist, des Variations, torn. i. p. 65. 



48 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

church, and each party deemed itself victorious. 
It was on the doctrine of the eucharist that the 
Cardinal of Lorraine was most anxious to entrap 
Beza, for, if he succeeded in drawing a reply from 
him which denied the interpretation of Luther, then 
he hoped to destroy all sympathy between the Hu- 
guenots of France and the Protestants of Germany, 
and thus, in case of a religious war, to deprive 
the former of the military aid of the latter ; but 
Beza was as wary as his subtle antagonist. One 
day, after a long altercation, the cardinal finished 
with this question : " Do you admit consubstan- 
tiation, as the Lutherans of Germany admit it?" 
to which Theodore answered, " Do you reject tran- 
substantiation, as the Lutherans of Germany reject 
it ? " When matters came to this crisis, when fair 
argument was thrown aside, and each party tried 
to outwit the other, it became necessary to terminate 
the conference ; it was accordingly dissolved, and 
the disputed points of doctrine remained just as they 
stood before the discussion commenced. 

The only remarkable circumstance which resulted 
from the colloquy of Poissy was the real, or pre- 
tended, conversion of the King of Navarre, who, 
shortly afterwards, joined the triumvirate, and in the 
excess of his newly acquired zeal, became one of 
the most bitter persecutors of the Huguenots. Many 
temptations were thrown in his way. The pope 
offered to dissolve his marriage with Jane D'Albret, 
on the plea of her being a heretic, and the Guises 
offered him the hand of their niece, Mary Stuart, 
Queen of Scotland, with her prospective claims on 
the crown of England. This overture he rejected, 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 49 

as well as a marriage with Margaret of Valois, 
though pressed upon him by her mother, Queen 
Catharine. He, however, yielded to a promise of 
Sardinia, as an indemnification for that part of 
Navarre of which the King of Spain had deprived 
him. From that hour to his death he proved one 
of the most remorseless enemies of the reformers. 

The complete failure of the colloquy of Poissy to 
produce any of the effects contemplated by the 
leaders of the two parties, led to the convocation of 
another assembly at Saint- Germain. This measure 
was strongly recommended to Catharine by De 
l'Hopital, and the opening speech of the chancellor 
showed his anxiety to make all points of theology 
subservient to the vital interests of political govern- 
ment. "The object of your deliberations/' said 
De THopital, on addressing the audience, " is clear 
and simple. Is it advantageous, in the existing 
state of affairs, to tolerate or to forbid the meetings 
of the Calvinists for the exercise of their devotions ? 
That is the single question you have to decide. 
To come to a right conclusion, you must keep out 
of view whatever relates to creed, doctrine, or 
religious discipline. Even let it be assumed that 
Calvinism is one continuous error of judgment, is 
that a reason to justify the proscription of those 
French subjects who have embraced it ? Can a man 
not be good citizen, without being a Catholic ? Do 
not, then, waste your time, or entangle yourselves 
in fruitless controversy, in the vain attempt at deci- 
ding which is the true religion. We are not here 
to establish a mode of faith, but a rule of go- 
vernment." 



50 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

The chancellor having dexterously narrowed the 
discussion into this limited compass, the triumph of 
the Calvinists was certain, for had the Duke of 
Guise affirmed that none but a Catholic could be 
a good subject, the Prince of Conde would have 
resented it, as a personal affront, and demanded 
satisfaction at the point of the sword. The Catho- 
lics were thus compelled to make concessons, or 
raise the standard of civil war, an extremity for 
which they were not prepared. The assembly of 
Saint- Germain passed an edict, called the Edict of 
January, 1563, by which many of the disabilities 
of the Calvinists were removed. They were permit- 
ted to meet unarmed without the walls of cities and 
towns, and the local magistrates were commanded 
to afford them protection ; and though prohibited 
from levying money to pay their preachers, they 
were allowed to receive any sum freely offered by 
voluntary contribution. In return for these conces- 
sions, the Huguenots were bound to restore all images 
and reliques of saints which they had seized, and to 
pay tithe and other ecclesiastical dues, and their 
preachers were commanded to abstain from all 
invectives against the ceremony of the mass. The 
Calvinists were grateful and satisfied ; the Catholics 
sullen and discontented ; the temporary calm was 
only the harbinger of a most fearful storm. 

When Philip of Spain received intelligence of 
this act of toleration, he wrote to the pope, to the 
King of Navarre, to Catharine, and all the Catholic 
leaders, expressing the poignant grief he felt at the 
concessions made to the heretics. He exhorted them 
to take up arms and crush the reformers by a single 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 51 

blow, offering to furnish men and money to carry 
his sanguinary proposals into execution. The King 
of Navarre, anxious to win the favour of Philip, 
without whose consent all his prospects on Sardinia 
would have been hopeless, urgently pressed the 
queen-mother to banish the Colignys from the court; 
for she, pursuing her constant policy of attempting to 
balance the two parties in the state, had warmly 
attached herself to the family of the Chatillons 
when the King of Navarre coalesced with the 
triumvirate. Catharine, however, consented to this 
request, on condition that the Cardinal of Lorraine, 
the Duke of Guise, and the Marshal Saint Andre, 
retired to their estates. These terms were accepted, 
for the Catholic leaders were well pleased to remove 
their rivals from the court, knowing that their 
own personal interests might be safely trusted to 
Montmorenci and the King of Navarre, both of 
whom were to continue at the seat of government. 
The royal family were then sojourning at Monceaux, 
near to Meaux. When the Prince of Conde heard 
that his enemies had retired, he travelled to Paris, 
hoping to make himself master of the capital. The 
King of Navarre, alarmed at his presence, but not 
daring to oppose him single-handed, wrote to the 
Duke of Guise to join him with his troops. The 
summons was instantly obeyed, but when the duke 
arrived at Yossi, a small town in Champagne, his 
followers came to blows with a party of Huguenots 
who were attending divine service in a barn. In 
the skirmish the duke was wounded, and the sight 
of his blood maddened his friends to fury : they 
massacred the Calvinists without distinction of age 

e 2 



52 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

or sex, destroyed the desk of the minister, burned 
his books, and only ceased from violence, when 
the field was covered with the dead and the 
wounded. 

The Duke of Guise was guiltless of this fearful 
slaughter, and protested his innocence on his death- 
bed : no doubt the quarrel originated from some 
very trifling cause, but it laid the foundation of a 
civil war. 1 The Calvinists presented their complaints 
to Catharine, who promised them redress, but the 
King of Navarre branded them as factious heretics. 
It was on this occasion that Theodore Beza indig- 
nantly answered him, " Sire, I speak on behalf of 
a religion which pardons injuries, instead of resenting 
them ; but remember it is an anvil which has blunted 
many hammers." 

The queen wrote to the Duke of Guise, imploring 
him to suspend his journey to Paris, but he drily 
answered that he could not abandon his friends. 
He advanced, and Conde retired, for the contest 
was unequal, as the great bulk of the Parisians were 
attached to the ancient religion. The prince has- 
tened to Meaux to muster his forces, and sent word 
to the admiral and D'Andelot to join him without 
delay. " Cesar has not only passed the Rubicon," 
wrote Conde to his two friends, " he has already 



1 Davila says that the Duke of Guise reproached the chief 
officer of Vossi for allowing this open preaching, who pleaded 
the edict of January in his justification ; whereupon, the duke 
laid his hand on his sword, and angrily replied, u This sword 
shall cut the bond of that edict, though ever so binding." This 
rash language, uttered in a moment of hasty passion, made 
many believe that he was the instigator of the civil war. p. 57. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 53 

seized Rome, and his banners will soon be dis- 
played over the country." 

Emboldened by their success, the triumvirs re- 
jected all overtures of parley or compromise, and 
determined to strike a vigorous blow at the autho- 
rity of Catharine herself. The possession of the 
king's person was the grand object of their policy, 
and they succeeded in the daring attempt, heedless of 
the prayer and menaces of the queen. They con- 
ducted Charles IX. to Paris, where he was received 
with the liveliest demonstrations of joy, and Mont- 
morenci displayed his zeal, on the evening the youth- 
ful monarch arrived, by plundering the Calvinist 
chapels, destroying the books, and making bonfires 
of the reading-desks of the preachers. The fanatical 
violence with which he sought after and destroyed 
the desks, gained him the name of Capitaine Brule- 
Bancs. 

Catharine had accompanied her son, but she felt 
that the substance of power had passed from her hands, 
and anxious to humble the Guises, she wrote to the 
Prince of Conde, imploring him to save the mother 
and the child. The prince eagerly responded to the 
call, and in his manifestoes he besought the Calvin- 
ists to attack their common enemy, and all true 
Frenchmen, without distinctions of religion, to take 
up arms for the liberation of their captive sovereign. 
The Guises, however, prevailed on the young king 
to sign and publish an official denial of the charges 
of the Prince of Conde, declaring that both himself 
and his mother enjoyed perfect freedom. 1 Such was 

1 "It is most certain," says Davila, " that the young king 



54 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

the equivocation, subterfuge, and notorious bad 
faith of the triumvirate, that the governors of pro- 
vinces knew not whether they ought, or ought not, 
to act on the instructions they received, for the 
orders brought by one courier were contradicted by 
others, and the dates purposely falsified to throw 
any odium that might arise on the subordinate de- 
partments of the executive. Historians, living at 
the time, and well informed of the facts, have as- 
serted that Montluc, Bishop of Yalence, the confi- 
dential adviser of Catharine, composed her manifes- 
toes to the Calvinists, and also her own refutations 
of their contents. 

The Prince of Conde seized on Orleans, which 
became the head-quarters of the Huguenot forces, 
and he opened negociations with Elizabeth, Queen 
of England, and the Protestant princes of Germany, 
to supply him with money, troops, and ammunition. 
The Guises received assistance from the King of 
Spain, the pope, Cosmo, Duke of Florence, and the 
republic of Venice, and, at the head of ten thousand 
men, marched against Orleans, Avithin whose walls 
the Chatillons, La Rouchefoucauld, Rohan, Genlis, 
Grammont, and other Calvinist leaders, were as- 
sembled. 



was seen by many that day to weep, being persuaded that the 
Catholic lords had restrained his personal liberty; and that the 
queen-mother, being discontented that her wonted arts had not 
prevailed, and foreseeing the mischiefs of the future war, 
seemed perplexed in mind, and spoke not a word to anybody; 
of which the Duke of Guise, making little account, was heard 
to say publicly, u That the good is always good, whether it pro- 
ceeds from love or force." 









REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 55 

The queen-mother dreaded a hostile encounter, 
for if either party had gained a decisive victory, her 
influence must have been diminished. She therefore 
adopted her usual plan of negociation ; and a con- 
ference was held at Talsy, a small village between 
Orleans and Chateau dun. The King of Navarre 
and the Prince of Conde represented their respective 
parties, and Montluc, Bishop of Yalence, acted for 
the queen. " Her majesty," said Montluc to the 
prince, " wishes to oblige you, but you know that 
the delicacy of her position is such, that she cannot 
render you the services she could wish, unless you 
make some appearance of concession. With a view 
therefore, to the re-establishment of public tran- 
quility, do you propose to quit the country with 
your friends, on condition that the triumvirs quit 
the court. They will certainly refuse, and you 
will have the merit of having made a patriotic 
offer ; this will enable the queen openly to es- 
pouse your cause, and all the odium of the civil war 
will rest with your enemies." 

Conde, unsuspicious of the treachery of Montluc, 
fell into the snare, and proposed the expatriation 
of his whole party in the terms recommended by 
the Bishop of Yalence. Catharine warmly ap- 
plauded his disinterestedness ; and then, addressing 
the members of the council, said, " Since our 
misfortunes have reached to such a pitch that 
they can only be put an end to by so singular 
a remedy, I accept your offer of quitting the king- 
dom. It will only be for a short time, and, in 
the interval, all angry feelings will subside. I 
by no means abandon my claims on your services, 



56 REIGN O^ CHARLES IX. 

and should any malcontents disturb the govern- 
ment, during your absence, I flatter myself that 
you will return and protect the state. Let us now 
confine ourselves to this preliminary arrangement, as 
the basis of our negociation ; to-morrow we will set- 
tle all minor points. 

The prince and his associates were thunderstruck 
at this unexpected conclusion, for not even the 
remotest allusion was made to the retirement of 
the triumvirs from court. His troops were in- 
dignant : the preachers exclaimed against the du- 
plicity of Montluc : the nobles protested against 
the validity of the promise, which, if performed, 
would entail ruin on themselves and their families. 
On the following day Conde again attended the 
conference, declared that he had been deceived, — 
retracted his engagement, and, mounting his horse, 
bid a fierce defiance to his enemies. Civil war in- 
stantly commenced, and both parties disgraced 
themselves by perpetrating the most remorseless 
acts of murder, torture, and incendiarism. To de- 
tail the various skirmishes which steeped all the 
provinces in blood, to enumerate the villages plun- 
dered, and record the deeds of cruelty committed 
by individual leaders of small armed bands, would 
occupy volumes, and they would form a narrative 
of crime, hideously diversified in its features, from 
which humanity would recoil ; it will be sufficient 
to note those principal battles which were attended 
with political results. 

The Prince of Conde concluded a treaty with 
Elizabeth of England, by which he covenanted to 
place in her hands Havre de Grace, on condition 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 57 

that she furnished him with one hundred thousand 
crowns, and garrisoned that town, Dieppe, and 
Rouen, with six thousand men. These proposals 
were accepted by the queen, who viewed the pos- 
session of Havre as an indemnification for the loss 
of Calais, and it was her decided interest to sup- 
port the Huguenots, as their triumph would tend 
to suppress the insurrectionary hopes of her own 
Catholic subjects. This arrangement determined 
the movements of the royal army, which abandoned 
the intended attack on Orleans, to carry the war into 
Normandy, for it was apprehended that the English 
would fortify themselves in Havre, and having the 
facility of throwing reinforcements into it from the 
sea, render that important maritime town a perma- 
nent conquest. It was accordingly resolved that the 
King of Navarre should lead his troops against 
Rouen, where Montgommeri commanded, — the same 
officer who had accidentally slain Henry the Second 
in a tournament. 

The garrison of Rouen consisted of two thousand 
English and twelve hundred French foot, and four 
troops of cavalry ; and the city was defended by a 
fort erected on Mount Sainte Catharine. The be- 
sieged were guilty of such gross negligence that this 
fort was soon and easily taken by surprise, and its 
cannon, directed against the walls of the town, 
made a breach practicable. Montgommeri, fearing 
to be overpowered by numbers, invited the English, 
quartered at Havre, to come to his assistance. 
They, descended the Seine in the night, but an 
Italian engineer, Bartolomeo Campi, sunk vessels 



58 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

laden with stones, and fastened to each other with 
chains, in the bed of the river. The passage of the 
English was thus obstructed, and only three galleys, 
having on board seven hundred men, succeeded in 
reaching Rouen. At the end of a month the city 
was carried by assault, and plundered during forty- 
eight hours. The King of Navarre received a mus- 
ket-shot in the left shoulder, which proved mortal, 
and Montgommeri made his escape into England 
with his wife and children. 1 

While Rouen was being besieged, the Prince of 
Conde remained in Orleans, waiting the arrival of 
D'Andelot with a body of German auxiliaries, who 
at length reached the head-quarters of the Calvinists, 
after weary marches, constantly harassed by the 

1 During the siege of Rouen, an officer of the garrison, 
named Francis Civil, while standing on the rampart, was 
struck hy a bullet in the face : he fell, and being supposed dead, 
he was buried. His servant, on hearing the fate of his master, 
begged to be shown the place in which he was interred, that he 
might carry the body to the relations of the deceased. Mont- 
gommeri himself led him to the spot ; the servant disintered 
all the corpses which had been deposited in the same pit, and 
examined them one by one, but he could not recognize that of 
his master. Disconsolate at his failure, he again replaced the 
bodies, and covered them with earth, and, having retired some 
paces, turned to take a farewell gaze of the spot, when he saw a 
hand above the sod, which he had not wholly concealed ; a feel- 
ing of humanity induced him to retrace his steps, that he might 
give the body all the rites of sepulture in his power, when, to 
his surprise, he saw the diamond ring of Civil, glittering on 
the finger of the exposed hand. He at once took up the corpse, 
and feeling some warmth in it, placed it on his shoulders, and 
carried it to the hospital. The surgeons, fully occupied with the 
wounded, refused to attend to a man whose case seemed entirely 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 59 

Catholics during their route. Thus reinforced 
Conde advanced to the environs of Paris, and at- 
tacked the suburbs, but without success. He then 
retreated into Xormandy, where he was met by the 
royalists at Dreux, a town on the frontiers of 
Normandy, twenty-six leagues from Paris, and wa- 
tered by the river Eure. Here the two armies 
engaged in battle, which lasted seven hours, and 
the contest was sustained with equal courage on 
both sides : in this desperate conflict Marshal Saint 
Andre was slain, and Conde and Montmorenci, 
who respectively commanded the Calvinists and the 
royalists, were taken prisoners. 1 

The death of the marshal and the captivity of 
the constable opened to the ambition of the Duke of 
Guise the full and undivided powers of a dictator- 
ship. He stood alone, the recognized chief of his 
party, without an equal, without a rival, with the 
whole Catholic population at his back. Admiral 

hopeless. The servant then carried his master to a public- 
house, dressed the wound, poured some cordial down his throat, 
which animated him, and, after a few days, he had the happi- 
ness to perceive that he was recognized. During this time the 
city was captured and set on fire. Some Catholic soldiers en- 
tered the public-house in which Civil was lodged, seized the 
dying man, and threw him out of the window ; fortunately he 
fell on a heap of dung, and there remained three days without 
food. At length his brother contrived to carry the body out 
of Rouen ; Civil received medical aid and recovered ; u and 
after so many deaths," says De Thou, who relates this extra- 
ordinary adventure, " he is now living while I write this account, 
forty years after the event. 

1 It may be remarked as one of the curious features of this 
age, that the Prince of Conde, now prisoner to the Duke of 
Guise, slept with him in the same bed Davila, p. 84. 



CO 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 



Coligny had collected the dispersed battalions, 
which had been vanquished at Dreux, and led them 
to Orleans, which the Duke of Guise at once be- 
sieged. The city was attacked and defended with 
skill and courage, and while its fate was still un- 
certain, a Calvinist gentleman, named Poltrot, l en- 
tered the camp of the Catholics, and assassinated the 
Duke of Guise. Bossuet accuses Coligny and Beza 
of having instigated this fanatic to perpetrate the 
murder; but the charge, thus preferred, is only 
deduced from inferences, which Bossuet has twisted 
so as to give a colour of truth to a fact he was 
so anxious to establish ; 2 but all impartial historians 
have acquitted them of any participation in so odious 
a crime. It is true that many of the Huguenots 
approved of the deed, for, in that age of religious bi- 
gotry, to slay those who professed an opposite creed 
was lauded as an act of piety. 3 Henry de Guise 

1 John Poltrot, Sieur de Mereborne, was descended from 
a noble family of Angouleme. He had lived many years in 
Spam, but was converted to Calvinism while living at 
Geneva. Poltrot pretended to have returned to the Catholic 
faith, and on the evening of the 24th of February, 1563, he lay 
in wait for the Duke of Guise, about a league from the trenches 
of Orleans, mounted on a swift horse. The duke, who was 
unarmed, came leisurely along the road, conversing with Tris- 
tan Rostine, a servant of the queen's, when the assassin dis- 
charged a gun at him, loaded with three bullets, which all took 
effect on the right shoulder, and passing through the body, 
stretched Guise on the ground. He survived but a few days. 
Poltrot was arrested by some Swiss soldiers on the bridge of 
Olivette : he confessed his guilt, was put to the torture, and af- 
terwards quartered. — Davila, p. 87- 

2 Hist, des Variations, tom.ii. p. 131, et seq. 

3 In the following year a conspiracy was discovered at Rome, 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 61 

always persisted in charging Coligny with the 
murder of his father ; and, young as he then was, he 
swore against him an unrelenting hatred, which 
only ceased with one of the most bloody catastrophes 
recorded by history. 

On the death of the Duke of Guise, the state 
of political parties assumed an entirely new aspect, 
and Catharine hoped that peace might be restored. 
Both the Princes of Conde and Montmorenci eagerly 
desired their freedom, and their friends aided the wish 
of the queen-mother, in order that their captivity 
might end with the termination of hostilities. The 
inflexible spirit of Coligny and D'Andelot alone 
threatened to protract the war, for they were too 
sincere in their principles, and too resolute in 
character, to sacrifice any advantages they might 
secure for their party, for the sake of liberating 
the Prince of Conde, whom they nevertheless 
highly esteemed ; but their personal friendship was 
as dust in the balance compared with their zeal for 
religious liberty. They were still enclosed within 
the walls of Orleans, and their absence from the 

which shows to what extent fanaticism was carried in those 
days. Count Antony Canossa and five others, his associates, 
all persons of rank, were deluded by presumed divine revelations, 
purporting that the successor of Pius IV. would become mo- 
narch of the whole earth, and that uuder his reign the Roman 
Catholic religion would become universal. In order to hasten 
this event, these visionaries conspired to murder the pope, fully 
persuaded that each would obtain a principality. They were 
arrested and put to the torture, and being interrogated separately, 
all gave the same answer, to the effect that the only induce- 
ment to the conspiracy was the desire of seeing one religion under 
a pope, who would be sovereign of the universe. They made 
no other disclosure whatever. — Condillac, torn. xiii. p. 148. 



62 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

court rendered any resistance on their part to the 
general pacification ineffectual ; Catharine availed 
herself of their position, and the Convention of Am- 
boise was signed on the 19th of March, 1563. 

The edict of July, 1562, permitted the Calvinists 
to assemble for the exercise of their religion in all 
parts of the kingdom, provided they met outside 
the walls of towns. The convention of Amboise 
granted the same privilege in the towns possessed 
by the Huguenots, up to the date of the 7th of May, 
1563. The general permission to preach all over 
the country, granted by the edict of January, was, 
however, restricted by the following limitations. 
The lords high justiciaries could only assemble their 
tenants and neighbours on the demesnes of their 
seignories; the nobles were only allowed to hear 
the preachers in their own houses, and even that in- 
dulgence was withheld, if the house was in a town 
over which a Catholic lord exercised judicial power. 
As some compensation for these restrictions, in every 
bailiwick, immediately dependent on any of the 
parliaments, a town was specially named in which 
the Calvinists were permitted the full and free 
exercise of their religion. The convention of Am- 
boise contained no clause of censure, but buried the 
past in oblivion : it declared that the Prince of 
Conde and his adherents were good and faithful 
subjects, and that they had taken up arms for the 
service of the crown. 1 

When Coligny heard that peace was signed, he 
became furious with rage, declaring that a stroke of 

1 Esprit de la Ligue, torn. i. p. 150. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 63 

the pen had done more harm to Calvinism than 
could have been caused by ten years of civil 
war. He was compelled, however, to submit and 
disband his army. Orleans was garrisoned by the 
royal troops, and Lyons, one of the strongholds of 
the Huguenots, was placed under the control of the 
crow r n. The famous Baron Des Adrets had com- 
manded in that city, from which he ruled with the 
sway of a monarch over the extreme south of 
France, and even terrified Rome with threats of 
invasion. His courage and cruelty, and the good 
fortune that attended his arms, rendered him most 
formidable to the Catholics, but so merciless was his 
character, that only one act of humanity is recorded 
to his honour. Whenever Des Adrets carried a town 
by assault, he made his prisoners leap from the 
walls into the trenches : on one occasion, a victim 
approached twice to the edge of the parapet, but 
shrunk back. " Twice is too much," said Des 
Adrets, sternly. " I will bet that you do not do it 
in ten tunes," retorted the prisoner. The tyrant 
smiled at the rebuke, and spared the man s life. 
The civil war being terminated, the continuance 
of the English auxiliaries in Normandy was no 
longer required, and Conde and Montmorenci at- 
tacked them in Havre. Out of six thousand men 
w^ho had landed in France, four thousand five hun- 
dred had perished by an epidemic, and the remainder 
were too enfeebled to resist the assault of the 
royal army. The Earl of Warwick, who com- 
manded the garrison, capitulated on the 17th of 
July, 1563, undertaking to deliver up Havre de 
Grace into the hands of the constable for the use of 



64 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

the most Christian king, with all the artillery and 
ammunition belonging to the French, and all the 
ships and merchandize taken or seized since the 
commencement of hostilities. It was further sti- 
pulated that all the prisoners on both sides should be 
set at liberty without ransom, and that the English, 
within six days, should transport their arms and 
baggage on board their ships without molestation. 
This agreement was scarcely signed, before an Eng- 
lish fleet of sixty sail were seen steering for the har- 
bour, with a favourable wind ; but the Earl of 
Warwick, feeling himself bound in honour to exe- 
cute the capitulation, sent a message to the admiral, 
that the town had surrendered. l Coligny and 
D'Andelot took no part in the expulsion of the 
English. 

Catharine availed herself of the interval of repose 
that followed these events to vest the full functions 
of royalty in Charles IX. whose majority she caused 
to be proclaimed at Rouen by the parliament of 
Normandy. This measure displeased Conde, Mont- 
morenci, Coligny, and all the other leading men 
who aspired to govern ; but though the king was 
only fourteen years of age, it was a prudent step, as 
it crushed the schemes of many factions, and had 
a tendency to rally all ranks round a legitimate 
master. 

The calm, however, was deceitful, and the ele- 
ments of discord were soon kindled into fresh 
activity. A church which declares itself infallible, 
and pronounces all doctrines false, except those 

1 Davilla, p. 90. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 65 

contained in its own exclusive creed, cannot with 
consistency tolerate any other opinions : such un- 
fortunately is the characteristic of the church of 
Rome, and this peculiar and intolerant dogma ren- 
dered permanent tranquillity impossible. When the 
commissioners, appointed to carry into execution 
the convention of Amboise, arrived in the different 
provinces, to mark the towns in which the Calvinist 
ministers might preach, and fix the limits of the 
rural districts, they met with great annoyance from 
both parties, the Catholics insisting on many re- 
strictions, — the Huguenots claiming even more than 
the law entitled them to demand. Thus embar- 
rassed, the commissioners applied to the court for 
fresh instructions, on which Catharine put a strained 
interpretation on the convention of Amboise, the 
whole of which was pointedly unfavourable to the 
Calvinists. Conde wrote a letter of remonstrance 
to the king, but it produced no effect ; and the prince 
satisfied himself with this slight effort, for he was 
now devoted to pleasure, and he sacrificed his honour 
to the intriguing females of the court. But the Ca- 
tholic nobles did not thus betray their party ; they 
supported their complaints, however frivolous, with 
the full weight of their influence ; and Montmorenci 
even devised a plot for massacring the reformers of 
Paris, which he would have executed, had not the 
queen interposed her authority. His son, Damville, 
who commanded in Languedoc, and Tavannes, the 
governor of Burgundy, distinguished themselves as 
persecutors of the Calvinists, while the thunders of 
the Vatican were vigorously launched against the re- 
puted heretics. 



66 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 



Within the bosom of the Gallican church itself 
a schism had arisen, not precisely in reference 
to doctrine, but rather in reference to discipline. 
Odet de Coligny, Bishop of Beauvais and Car- 
dinal Chatillon, had married a Norman lady, with 
whom he lived openly, and she assumed the title 
of Countess of Beauvais. This was a direct infrac- 
tion of the celibacy imposed on all priests, and 
the cardinal was cited to Rome. Nor was his a 
solitary case. Saint-Romain, Archbishop of Aix; 
Montluc, Bishop of Valence ; Carraccioli, of Troyes ; 
Barbancon, of Pamiers; and Guillart, of Chartres, 
were also summoned to appear before the pontiff 
and profess their faith. Had the pope limited his cita- 
tions to these individuals, the probability is that they 
would have been abandoned by the court ; but 
his holiness extended his authority to Jane D'Albret, 
Queen of Navarre, whom he threatened to proscribe, 
unless she appeared at Rome within six months. 
This was an attack on the dignity of the crown 
itself, Jane being of the blood-royal, and Charles 
IX. indignantly remonstrated with the legate on this 
insult to his family, on which the papal bull was re- 
called, and all the parties inculpated thus escaped the 
ecclesiastical censures with which they were menaced. 

Catharine now resolved to conduct the king 
through the provinces, that he might see his people, 
and ascertain the strength of parties and the feelings 
of the inhabitants. The court travelled as a party 
of pleasure, very few soldiers constituting the royal 
escort ; but a subtle and cruel policy lurked under this 
semblance of gaiety and confidence. The province 
of Burgundy was decidedly Calvinistic, and when 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 67 

the king arrived there, he ordered numerous strong 
castles to be razed to the ground. At Roussillon 
he passed a new edict, qualifying the convention 
of Amboise : it enacted that no gentleman should 
allow preaching on his estate, if others than his 
own family and servants attended ; it prohibited all 
collections of money, even for the maintenance of 
the ministers, and commanded all priests, if married, 
to put away their wives or quit the kingdom. In 
Provence and Languedoc the king pointed with 
horror at the dilapidated churches and broken 
images of the saints, expressing his high displea- 
sure at these proofs of Huguenot violence. Thus he 
proceeded on his journey, evincing his hatred of the 
Calvinists, till he reached Bayonne, the city in 
which he had appointed to meet his sister Eliza- 
beth, married to Philip II. King of Spain. 

Various opinions have been entertained of the true 
object of this celebrated interview. The Catholic 
historians affirm that it was a mere family visit, 
while the Calvinists insist that there was plotted the 
atrocious massacre of Saint Bartholomew. It is 
certain that the infamous Alvarez de Toledo, Duke 
of Alva, celebrated for his atrocities in the Low 
Countries, and for the most ferocious bigotry, repre- 
sented the King of Spain on this occasion, and the 
young Prince of Beam, afterwards Henry IV. of 
France, who had accompanied the royal party, has 
distinctly recorded that many conversations passed on 
the subject of the religious discords which distracted 
the kinodom. 1 Catharine herself wished to maintain 

1 The Prince of Navarre, being then a child, and almost con- 
tinually with Catharine of Medicis, heard something of the plot 

F2 



68 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 



tranquillity, by reconciling the chiefs of the two fac- 
tions ; but the Duke of Alva entirely disapproved of 
this policy, insisting that there should be only one 
faith and one party. "Ten thousand frogs," he 
said, "are not worth the head of a salmon;" a 
sentiment breathing extermination, and one which 
Catharine afterwards turned to fearful account. 1 

The royal journey ended, an assembly was con- 
vened at Moulins, at the commencement of the year 
1566. The princes of the blood, the cardinals, the 
bishops, the knights of the several orders, the prime 
nobility, and the leading men of the different parlia- 
ments, were ordered to attend. The king declared 
that his sole object in visiting the provinces had 
been personally to hear the petitions of his subjects, 
to learn on the spot the causes of local grievances, 
and collect such general information as would enable 
the council of state to establish permanent tranquillity 
throughout the kingdom. He then implored all 

to exterminate all the heads of the Protestant party. He gave 
notice of it to the queen his mother, and she to the Prince of 
Conde and the admiral; the rage this inspired them with led to the 
enterprise at Meaux. — Mathieii, Hist, de France, torn. i. p. 283. 
1 According to Davila, the Duke of Alva thus expressed him- 
self : " That a prince could not do anything more unworthy or 
prejudicial to his interests, than to permit a liberty of conscience 
to his people, bringing as many varieties of religion into a state 
as there are capricious fancies in the restless minds of men, and 
opening a door to let in discord and confusion, mortal accidents 
for the ruin of a state : that as the controversies of religion had 
always served as an argument or pretence for the insurrections of 
the malcontents, it was necessary at the first dash to remove this 
cover, and afterwards by severe remedies, no matter whether by 
fire or sword, to cut away the roots of that evil, which, by mild- 
ness or sufferance, perniciously springing up, still spread itself 
and increased." 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. W 

present to aid him by their advice, to bury their 
private quarrels in oblivion, and unite together for 
the general welfare of the nation. The chancellor, 
De THopital, enlarged on the royal speech, and 
proposed measures of singular prudence and rare sa- 
gacity, which formed the basis of the celebrated 
edict of Moulins — an edict which settled a very 
great number of controverted points of jurisprudence. 
In reference to the disputes of religion, it was simply 
ordered that all former laws should be solemnly con- 
firmed. 

Had there been any sincerity in the professions of 
Charles, or had honesty swayed the counsels of his 
advisers, the privileges and disabilities of the Cal- 
vinists would have been clearly and fundamentally 
fixed at this meeting ; but though there was a gene- 
ral ratification of former edicts, all of which had 
been distorted by unfair constructions put on their 
most important clauses, yet it was so loosely worded 
as to leave all the main principles in confusion and 
incertitude. In fact, the court had no intention to 
establish any definitive settlement of the points at 
issue ; on the contrary, it was their wish to leave 
matters in such a fluctuating and doubtful state, as 
to render the constant interference of the royal coun- 
cil necessarj^, and by this means it was hoped gra- 
dually to fritter away all the protective securities of 
religious liberty. They were anxious, however, to 
reconcile the leaders of the two parties, particularly 
the Guises and the Chatillons, and in this they os- 
tensibly succeeded. The Prince of Conde pledged 
his honour that the admiral was guiltless of the mur- 
der of the Duke of Guise at Orleans, and Coligny 



70 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

himself denied the charge on oath. The king, there- 
upon, decided that the widow of the deceased and 
the Cardinal of Lorraine should be satisfied with 
these declarations, and the parties embraced, vowing 
to each other a hollow friendship, while the young 
Henry de Guise, by his cold and haughty demeanour, 
showed that he was no party to the pretended recon- 
ciliation. 1 

When the assembly at Moulins was dissolved, the 
king desired all the nobles to return to their estates, 
for he feared that fresh quarrels might arise unless 
they were separated. He only retained at court the 
Cardinal of Lorraine and Marshal Montmorenci, son 
of the constable, and, as they uniformly opposed 
each other on all matters of state, and broke out into 
the most angry recriminations when the king was 
not present to restrain their violence, it was arranged 
that whenever his majesty was absent, his brother, 
the Duke of Anjou, should preside at the council. 
Catharine dexterously availed herself of the name of 
this young prince to defeat many applications which 
it was difficult to refuse and still more hazardous to 
grant. Thus when Conde demanded the office of 
lieutenant-general of the kingdom, vacant since the 
death of his brother, the King of Navarre, the queen 
replied that it had been promised to the Duke of 

1 The Duke of Aumale, on arriving at the court, refused to 
meet the admiral or any of his family. On the contrary, in the 
queen's presence, he said, referring to a charge preferred against 
him by the admiral, of having hired an assassin to kill him, that 
he should consider it a great happiness to be shut up with him 
in a chamber, that he might, hand to hand, let him know he 
had no need of help, but that he was quite able to determine 
his own quarrel himself. — Davila, p. 98. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 71 

Anjou ; and when Montmorenci requested that his 
son, the marshal, should succeed him in the con- 
stableship, she observed that the constableship would 
be abolished as soon as the Duke of Anjou was ap- 
pointed lieutenant-general. 

Catharine was occasionally indulgent to the Cal- 
vinists, and her indulgence to the Cardinal of Cha- 
tillon was carried to an extent which drew down 
upon her the most bitter reproaches. The life of 
that prelate was a perpetual scandal to the church, 
and his marriage a daring violation of ecclesiastical 
law. His enemies insisted on his deposition. Cath- 
arine steered a middle course. She allowed him to 
retain all his episcopal revenues and patronage, on 
his dropping the titles of Cardinal and Bishop of 
Beauvais. 

The queen-mother had great difficulty in restrain- 
ing the bigotry of the king, whose hatred of Calvin- 
ism was only equalled by his dissimulation; for, 
though yet a mere youth, he masked his real opinions 
with a wiliness and duplicity that deceived the old- 
est and craftiest of the courtiers. Every fresh de- 
mand of the Huguenots for an extension of their 
privileges, or for the protection of those already con- 
ceded to them, roused his choler and filled him with 
vexation. One day he broke out in great anger 
against Admiral Coligny : " It is not long since," 
said he, " that you were satisfied with being merely 
tolerated by the Catholics ; now you claim to be 
their equals, presently you will wish to be supreme." 
The habitual prudence of the admiral kept him silent. 
Charles left him abruptly, and rushing into the apart- 
ment of the chancellor, exclaimed, " The Duke of 



72 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 



Alva was right : heads so high are dangerous to a 
state : tact and skill are useless, for they may be 
parried by the same weapons ; we can only keep 
our ascendency by force." 

When the ambassadors of the Protestant princes 
of Germany waited on the king, beseeching him to 
protect the French Calvinists, his displeasure was 
excited to fury. " I will willingly maintain amica- 
ble relations with your princes," said he, " so long as 
they interfere with my affairs as little as I do with 
theirs ;" and, after a moment's silence, he scornfully 
added, " Since you ask me to tolerate the new doc- 
trines in all the towns of France, may I ask your 
princes to tolerate the mass in all the towns of Ger- 
many?" 1 

Charles IX. now resolved to put down the 
Huguenots by the sword, and he only wanted a 
plausible pretext to increase his army. To have 
adopted such a measure without being able to assign 
some valid reason, would have excited suspicion and 
defeated his views ; but he adroitly availed himself 
of an opportunity which effectually deceived the 
Calvinist leaders. The King of Spain, determined 
on prosecuting the war in the Low Countries, de- 
signed, at the commencement of the year 1567, to 
march an army, under the conduct of the Duke of 
Alva, by the route of Savoy and the mountain-chain 
of Lorraine, skirting the frontier of France. Catha- 
rine pretended great alarm at this expedition, avow- 
ing her fears lest the country should be invaded by 
the Spaniards ; and to avert this danger it was pro- 
posed to augment the army, and take six thousand 
1 Davila, p. 105. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 



73 



Swiss into the pay of France. All parties eagerly 
supported these views, as the honour of the nation 
was at stake, and the Prince of Conde and his friends 
were among the foremost to tender their services, of- 
fering to arm all the Huguenots. Their offers, how- 
ever, were rejected, for obvious reasons ; nor were 
the Calvinist leaders entrusted with any of the com- 
mands to which their rank and experience gave 
them a just title. Every station of trust or respon- 
sibility was exclusively bestowed on Catholic offi- 
cers. 

In a short time the Duke of Alva advanced with 
his forces, but, far from being opposed by the French, 
he received from them the most abundant supplies 
of provisions. This conduct on the part of the go- 
vernment at once revealed the secret object of their 
policy, and the Calvinists held a secret council at 
Chatillon-sur-Loing, the residence of the admiral, 
where they determined to foil stratagem by stratagem, 
and resist force by force. They had ascertained the 
designs of their enemies, who had resolved to im- 
prison the Prince of Conde for life, and put the ad- 
miral to death ; to distribute the six thousand Swiss 
in equal numbers in the garrisons of Paris, Orleans, 
and Poitiers, to revoke all edicts of pacification or 
toleration, and rigorously to prohibit the exercise of 
the reformed opinions. 

The court were sojourning at Monceaux, in Brie, 
in a residence perfectly open, and which offered no 
protection against any attack. They soon received 
intelligence that small parties of armed men were 
collecting in the provinces, and justly suspecting 
that their schemes were discovered, they removed to 



74 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

Meaux for greater security. Castelnau, an able 
diplomatist, was ordered to visit the admiral, and 
endeavour to penetrate his intentions ; but the wary- 
Huguenot was on his guard, and Castelnau reported 
that he had found him busily engaged in his vine- 
yards. This was on the 26th of September, 1567, 
and on the 28th the whole of France was in a state 
of convulsion. A body of cavalry, entirely com- 
posed of gentlemen, and commanded by Conde, 
D'Andelot, and the Count de la Rochefoucauld, ar- 
rived at Rosay, a small town, distant four leagues 
from Meaux. 

The court party were now placed in imminent 
danger, and the queen-mother was excessively 
alarmed lest the Calvinist leaders should seize the 
person of the young king : she insisted on summon- 
ing the six thousand Swiss to her aid, but was op- 
posed by De THopital. The chancellor was over- 
ruled by the council, and a courier was dispatched 
to hasten the arrival of the mercenaries, who, by 
forced marches, reached Meaux in the evening of the 
28th of September, without being attacked by the 
confederates. This reinforcement tranquillized the 
fears of Catharine ; but a question still arose, whether 
the king should be escorted to Paris, or hazard the 
chance of being besieged in Meaux ; and, after some 
discussion, and at the earnest entreaties of the Swiss, 
it was resolved to advance on the capital. 

At midnight the drums beat to arms, the foreign 
auxiliaries were formed into a hollow square, in the 
centre of which the king rode on horseback. The 
Duke of Nevers, at the head of the royal guard, ac- 
companied by all the courtiers, who had no other 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 75 

weapons than their swords, preceded the Swiss. 
Scarcely had they advanced a league, ere they were 
attacked by the Prince of Conde, but the Swiss stood 
firm, and their compact ranks were never broken. 
The whole day was passed in mere skirmishes, and 
in the evening Charles reached Paris in safety, and 
the confederates encamped before the capital. 

On the following morning the king issued a pro- 
clamation, in which he promised an amnesty to all 
who would lay down their arms within twenty-four 
hours, and repair to their homes ; while those who 
persisted in their rebellion were menaced with capital 
punishment. The only answer of the Calvinists was 
an active blockade of the city : they destroyed the 
mills, made themselves masters of the rivers, and 
fortified all the castles which commanded the main 
roads. Nor did they confine themselves to military 
operations ; they declared that their motive in taking 
up arms was not only to secure their religious rights, 
but to diminish the taxes, and maintain the general 
freedom of all classes, to effect which purposes they 
demanded the convocation of the states-general. 

The head-quarters of the Prince of Conde were at 
Saint Denis, of which the Huguenots were in full 
possession. On the 7th of October deputies arrived 
in that town from the king, commanding them to 
lay down their arms, under the penalty of being 
punished at the royal discretion. This order was 
addressed nominatively to each of the known Cal- 
vinist leaders, that none might plead ignorance of its 
specific import. When the herald approached, 
Conde said to him in a loud and angry tone, " Be- 
ware of what you are about to do, for if your mes- 



76 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

sage attacks my honour, I will hang you on the 
nearest tree." " I come/' replied the herald, " from 
your master and mine, and no menace will prevent 
the faithful discharge of my duty." With these 
words he gave the summons to the prince, who an- 
swered that he would send his reply in three days. 
" It must be delivered within twenty hours," replied 
the herald, and retired. 1 

The confederates were alarmed ; they saw that the 
king was firm, and that he would treat them as 
traitors to the crown, not as mere enemies to his 
ministers. Prudence induced them to qualify their 
demands, and a fresh negociation was opened at La 
Capelle, a small village between Paris and Saint 
Denis, under the auspices of Anne de Montmorenci 
and the Prince of Conde. But this last attempt at 
reconciliation failed with the announcement of the 
first article in the terms of the proposed peace. The 
Calvinists demanded the general, public, and irrevo- 
cable exercise of their religion, as the basis of any 
arrangement : Montmorenci plainly and firmly re- 
fused any such concession : he went further, stating 
that the indulgences hitherto granted to the Hugue- 
nots were always intended to be temporary, — that 
the king now determined on their revocation, and 
that for the future he would only permit one form of 
worship, which would be that of the church of 
Rome. An open rupture thus became inevitable, 
and after much angry altercation between the uncle 
and the nephew, the conference was dissolved, and 
both parties prepared to try the fate of arms. 

The army of the confederates had been strongly 
» Davila, p. 114 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 77 

reinforced since the occupation of Saint Denis, the 
preachers having used all their exertions in the dif- 
ferent provinces to support their military leaders with 
volunteers ; but still the royal forces were superior in 
number, particularly in cavalry. The emissaries of 
the Prince of Conde were raising levies in Gennany, 
and their arrival was impatiently expected : this 
fact was known to the king and council, and it in- 
duced them at once to hazard a battle, before the 
enemy was strengthened by those auxiliaries. On 
the 10th of November, 1567, the hostile armies en- 
countered each other on tho plains of Saint Denis, 
and after a fierce and obstinate conflict, in which the 
royalists had the advantage in artillery and position, 
the Catholics remained masters of the field of battle. 
In this engagement the old constable was slain : he 
had received four wounds in the face, and a severe 
blow on the head from a battle-axe ; yet he still 
fought bravely, and was endeavouring to rally his 
men, when Robert Stuart, a Scotchman, rode up to 
him and presented a pistol, on which Montmorenci 
exclaimed, " Do you not know me V s " It is because 
I know you," replied Stuart, " that I send you this," 
and instantly fired his pistol, when the shot took ef- 
fect in the shoulder of the veteran general : he fell, 
but when falling threw his sword with such violence 
in the face of his enemy, that he beat out three of 
his teeth, and broke his jaw-bone. 1 

The Huguenots rushed forward to seize the body 
of the constable ; the royalists, however, rescued it, 

1 Davila, p. 11 7. It is a remarkable fact that Robert Stuart 
was the person who took Montmorenci prisoner at the battle of 
Dreux. Vide, notes to the Kenriade. 



78 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

and the old man was carried in a dying state to 
Paris, where he was personally visited by the king 
and queen — a flattering consolation to a courtier. 
After he had confessed, the priest importuned him 
with his exhortations, and roused his choler : " Leave 
me, holy father," said Montmorenci : "it would be 
disgraceful if a man who has lived eighty years, was 
not prepared to die at a quarter of an hour's no- 
tice." * 

Though the battle of Saint Denis was not decisive, 
the advantage rested with the royalists : the Prince 
of Conde retreated, nor did he deem himself in safety 
till he had crossed the Meuse. His object was to 
form a junction with the German auxiliaries ; and 
this was effected towards the close of December, 1567, 
when the allies, commanded by John Casimir, prince 
palatine, marched into the camp of the Calvinists. 
Their arrival, so long desired, was not unattended 
with serious inconvenience, for Conde had covenanted 
to pay them one hundred thousand crowns, and the 
military chest only contained two thousand. His 
own army served without pay : they had suffered 
severely in their retreat from Saint Denis in the 
most rigorous season of the year ; their provisions had 
been scanty, and many were in want of shoes. To 
all these privations they had cheerfully submitted 
for conscience* sake; but it was very doubtful whether 
they would extend their generosity so far as to dis- 

1 " Those who speak without passion of the constable," says 
Davila, " give him three principal attributes ; that he was a 
good soldier, a loving servant, but a bad friend ; for in all his 
actions he was ever swayed by the consideration of his owu in- 
terest."— P. 117. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 79 

charge the claims of the Germans. It was necessary, 
however, to try the experiment, and it was success- 
ful. History records no circumstance more extraor- 
dinary, or which more deeply illustrates the influence 
of religious enthusiasm : it is true the full amount 
was not subscribed, but all was given that was pos- 
sessed. 1 The auxiliaries were satisfied, and early in 
January, 1 568, the confederates resolved to march 
against the capital : on their route they received con- 
siderable reinforcements, and twenty thousand men 
laid siege to Chartres, a town eighteen leagues dis- 
tant from Paris. 

So formidable a rebellion filled Catharine with 
alarm, and she resorted to her old policy of negocia- 
tion. This remarkable woman, whose ambition was 
only content with unlimited power, was now in full 
possession of all the authority she had coveted. 
Though the majority of the king had been recognized, 
he was too young to rule effectively in person, and 
the real government was vested in a council of minis- 
ters, all of whom were entirely devoted to the queen- 
mother. On the death of Montmorenci, the Duke 
of Anjou, a youth of sixteen, and second brother to 
the king, was placed at the head of the army, with 
the title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom ; and of 
course the appointment to all military commands 
rested exclusively with Catharine. Thus she was 
all powerful in the cabinet and the camp, and dis- 
played a masculine energy of action which animated 
her friends and astonished her enemies. 

The brilliant army of the Calvinists failed before 

1 Davila says that this voluntary contribution amounted to 
thirty thousand crowns. 



80 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

the walls of Chartres. Gold was largely distributed 
among the Germans, and the bribe was accepted. 
They deserted in great numbers. Many of the 
French, who had expected that the campaign would 
have finished with the surprise of Meaux, became 
discontented at the protracted hostilities, and returned 
to their homes. Catharine adroitly availed herself of 
this disunion, and printed copies of certain terms, said 
to have been offered by the king and rejected by the 
Prince of Conde, were circulated in the camp ; the 
conditions were, the free exercise of the reformed re- 
ligion, and the royal guarantee to pay the demands 
of the Germans. All these circumstances produced 
the desired effect ; a treaty of peace was signed on 
the 23rd of March, which terminated the second 
war. The king granted a full pardon to all, received 
the leaders of the confederates into his favour, and 
promised faithfully to execute the edict of January, 
1562. 

Peace having been proclaimed, the armies were 
disbanded. Two difficulties, however, remained. 
It was prudent to rid the country of the Germans, 
but their arrears of pay amounted to a much larger 
sum than the treasury could disburse. An instal- 
ment was paid them, and a promise given that the 
balance would be remitted to them on their march ; 
but the further they removed from the capital, the 
less anxiety was felt to fulfil the engagement. The 
mercenaries, finding themselves deceived, laid the 
unprotected country desolate, plundered all the pro- 
perty they could seize, and returned home laden 
with a rich booty. On the part of the Calvinists, 
and as a just measure of reciprocity, it was insisted 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 



81 



that the Spanish and Swiss auxiliaries should eva- 
cuate the kingdom ; but they remained, Catharine 
being only anxious for the departure of the Germans. 

The distinction thus made between the foreign 
levies announced the insincerity and hollowness of 
the past negociations. Distrust and suspicion 
arose. Every possible discourtesy was shown to 
the Calvinist leaders, while the people were exposed 
to an infinity of petty vexations. The Catholic 
pulpits resounded with invectives against the sec- 
tarians, with seditious reflections on the peace, and 
exhortations to break it. The clergy had become 
innoculated w T ith the virus of Jesuitism, and openly 
proclaimed that no faith ought to be kept with 
heretics, and that their massacre was just, pious, and 
conducive to salvation. These inflammatory ha- 
rangues provoked tumults and occasioned frequent 
assassinations. The Calvinist writers afhrrn that, 
in the space of three months, ten thousand of 
their persuasion perished by poison, by the dag- 
ger, and the slow tortures of imprisonment ; — a cal- 
culation no doubt exaggerated, but w^hen reduced 
within the bounds of reasonable probability, it is 
one which traces in characters of blood the desolating 
horrors of religious warfare. 

The astucious policy of Catharine aided the fran- 
tic zeal of the priests and the Jesuits. Fearing 
lest any of her secret plans might reach the ears of 
Conde or Coligny, she constructed a council of 
state on an entirely new model, excluding many 
who had an official right to be present at its sittings. 
Among these was the Chancellor De l'Hopital, 
whose virtue and equity had frequently thwarted 

G 



82 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 



the exterminating proposals of the Princes of Lor- 
raine. He was ordered to deliver up the seals, and 
banished to his estate. The effective powers of go- 
vernment were confided to a select few, and shrouded 
in mystery. A form of oath was transmitted to all 
the governors of provinces, by which they were 
bound not to recognize any order, unless the king's 
sign-manual was appended to it. In short, every 
possible measure was taken to render the next blow 
struck at the Calvinists decisive. 

Catharine, having thus arranged her plans, sum- 
moned the Prince of Conde to refund to the treasury 
the monies advanced by the king to the German 
auxiliaries. She was well aware of the injustice of 
the demand, Charles IX. himself having personally 
guaranteed the payment, as one of the conditions 
of peace ; but she knew that the exaction would be 
popular among the Catholics, who insisted on not 
being taxed for the calamities brought on the country 
by the heretics. The queen-mother also foresaw that 
the prince would disobey the summons; but she 
intended, in default of his appearance, to arrest his 
person on the plea of contumacy. Conde was then 
residing at his castle of Noyers, in Burgundy, 
whither the admiral had repaired, as soon as he had 
received intelligence of the demands of the govern- 
ment. While they were consulting as to the policy 
they ought to pursue, the province was gradually 
filling with troops, divisions of which guarded the 
roads, bridges, and fords over the rivers. Mar- 
shal Tavannes, who commanded in Burgundy, had 
been strictly ordered to seize the prince ; but though 
that officer was a furious bigot, he had a keen sense 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 83 

of military honour, and the odious commission 
forced upon him shocked all his manlier feelings. 
He was too wary a politician, however, openly to 
refuse obedience to the royal mandate, and dexte- 
rously contrived to save the prince, while he retained 
his own government. He approached Noyers, 
whence he wrote to the queen-mother, " The stag 
is at bay; the chace is prepared." After dispatching 
tliis laconic epistle, he sent forward some soldiers to 
sound the depth of water in the ditches which sur- 
rounded the castle : they were seized, as Tavannes 
intended they should be, and, on being interrogated, 
their answers fully apprized Conde and the admiral 
of their danger. 

Escape, however, would still have been impossi- 
sible had Tavannes chosen to have done his duty. 
Marshal Viellevielle, who commanded in Poitou, 
was equally remiss or indulgent, and the Calvinist 
leaders, with their families, having quitted Noyers 
in August, reached Rochelle in safety on the 10th 
of September, 1568. They arrived in that friendly 
town after having endured the most severe hard- 
ships, traversing mountain-paths hitherto untrodden, 
and crossing the Loire, at a ford which had never 
before been passed. 

Nor were these the only victims of intended per- 
fidy who baffled the subtle arts of Catharine. Odet, 
Cardinal of Chatillon, in the disguise of a common 
sailor, reached England from one of the ports of 
Normandy, and his negociations with Queen Eliza- 
beth subsequently proved of eminent service to his 
party. The Queen of Navarre, whose arrest was 
entrusted to Montluc, retired from Beam, and 

g 2 



84 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 



sought safety at Rochelle, accompanied by her son 
and daughter. She brought troops and money to 
aid the Calvinist cause. 

The third war now commenced. The edict of 
January, 1562, confirmed by the last peace, was 
repealed, and the exercise of any form of worship, 
excepting the Roman Catholic, was prohibited 
under the penalty of death. Such extreme mea- 
sures rallied all the Huguenots to fight for their 
common safety ; nor did they, on this occasion, re- 
quire any stimulus from the exhortations of the 
preachers. Soubise, Montmorenci, the Yidame of 
Chartres, D'Andelot, La Noue, Genlis, Mouy, 
D'Acier, Morvilliers, and other chiefs of the Cal- 
vinists, levied troops in the various provinces in 
which they had personal interest. So great was 
the influence of these leaders, that James Crussol, 
Lord of Acier, alone raised twenty -five thousand 
men in Languedoc and Dauphiny ; — a proof of 
the comparative weakness of the royal preroga- 
tive, and of the vast power retained by the descen- 
dants of the ancient baronial aristocracy. D'Acier 
was one of the most determined and intrepid of 
the Huguenot party. His banner was a broad 
pendant of green taffeta, on which was painted a 
hydra, whose heads represented cardinals, bishops, 
and priests ; while D'Acier himself, in the character 
of Hercules, and brandishing the club of that heathen 
demigod, was exhibited in the act of exterminating 
his enemies. 

At the close of 1569, Conde sallied forth from the 
marches of Lower Poitou, and advanced to Loudun, 
where the royal army, under the command of the 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 85 

Duke of Anjou, presented itself to arrest his pro- 
gress. The severity of the weather prevented any 
encounter; the royalists retreated, and the prince 
retired into winter-quarters, retaining his advantages 
in Poitou, Saintonge, and Angoumois. The Italian 
princes had sent auxiliaries to the king, who also 
received aid from some of the German Catholics, un- 
der the command of the Marquis of Baden. England 
sent money and cannon to the Calvinists, and the 
Duke of Deux-Ponts, a Bavarian prince, marched 
to the assistance of Conde. 

Though the Duke of Anjou had the nominal com- 
mand of the royal forces, all the military operations 
in the field were entrusted to Marshal Tavannes ; and 
though that general had allowed Conde and Col- 
igny to escape from the castle of Noyers, disdaining, 
as he said privately to his friends, to act the part of 
a sheriff's officer, he was not disposed to allow them 
to achieve a victory, when ranged in battle array. 
The object of the Calvinists was to avoid a decisive 
battle before they were joined by the Duke of Deux- 
Ponts, while that of Tavannes was to confine them to 
the provinces they then occupied, lest they should 
meet the Germans on their route. All the manoeu- 
vres of Conde to effect a junction with his allies 
were defeated by his active and skilful opponent ; 
and, on the 13th of March, 1569, the two armies 
came in sight of each other, on the banks of the 
Charente, near to Jarnac, a small frontier-town 
which divided Limousin from Angoumois. 

The river separated the combatants, and, had the 
Calvinists done their duty, they might haveavoidedthe 
calamities which soon befel them ; but they neglected 



86 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

to keep a diligent watch, and during the night 
Tavannes crossed the Charente. The army of 
Conde was spread over a large tract of ground, 
while that of the royalists advanced in a compact 
phalanx : the prince, taken by surprise, attempted 
to retreat on his main body ; but being hard pressed 
by the cavalry under the Duke of Anjou, he was 
compelled to wheel round and charge his assailants. 
At this critical juncture his leg was broken by a 
kick from the horse of the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, 
who was riding by his side. Nothing daunted by 
this misfortune, he harangued his feeble escort, and 
gallantly plunged into the thick of the fight ; but 
the contest was unequal. Surrounded on all sides, 
he was soon dismounted : with one knee on the 
earth, he shook his sword in fierce defiance at his 
enemies ; the nearest of the royalist officers promised 
him his life, when Montesquiou, captain of the Duke 
of Anjou's guards, came behind him and fired a pis- 
tol ball through his head. 1 

M Oh ! plaines de Jarnac ! O coup trop inhumain ! 
Barbare Montesquiou ! moins guerrier qu' assassin ! 
Conde deja mourant tomba sous ta furie, 
J'ai vu porter le coup, j'ai vu trancher sa vie, 
Helas ! trop jeune encore, mon bras, mon foible bra6, 
Ne peut ni prevenir, ni venger son trepas." 

Henriade, Chant. 2. 

The defeat of the Calvinists was complete. In 

1 The body of the prince was carried in triumph into Jarnac 
upon a pack-horse. " All the army," says Davila, u making 
sport at such a spectacle, though, whilst he lived, they were ter- 
rified at the name of so great a person." The body of Cond^ 
was afterwards restored to his nephew, Henry, Prince of Beam, 
by whom it was buried at Vendome, in a tomb belonging to 
his ancestors. — Davila,-p. 141. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 



87 



the battle of Jarnac perished Robert Stuart, who 
slew the constable Montmorenci at Saint Denis : 
he was wounded and taken prisoner; he was then 
tortured to death, by repeated stabs from sharply- 
pointed daggers. Many suffered as he did. The cruel 
and remorseless Duke of Montpensier even pro- 
nounced summary sentence on the brave and ta- 
lented La Noue. " My friend," said he, sneeringly, 
" your trial is finished, and that of all your com- 
rades : look to your conscience." Martigues, a cap- 
tain in the royal army, and who had been an old 
brother in arms of La Noue, obtained his pardon, 
and he was exchanged. 

The routed army of the Calvinists rapidly re- 
treated to Cognac, a town in Angoumois, where the 
admiral, D'Andelot, and other leaders collected the 
remnant of their dispersed forces, Jane D'Albret, 
Queen of Navarre, having heard of their defeat, 
quitted Rochelle, and hastened to join them, accom- 
panied by her son Henry, Prince of Beam, and the 
eldest son of the Prince of Conde, who was a few 
years younger than his cousin. The heroic firmness 
of this high-minded woman rallied the desponding 
spirits of the Huguenots, and animated them to 
fresh exertions. Holding the two young men by 
either hand, she presented herself before the troops, 
and thus addressed them : " My friends, we mourn 
the loss of a prince who, to his dying hour, sustained 
with equal fidelity and courage the party which he 
had undertaken to defend ; but our tears would be 
unworthy of him, unless, imitating his bright exam- 
ple, we firmly resolved to sacrifice our own lives 
rather than abandon our faith. The good cause has 



88 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

not perished with Conde; and his unhappy fatv. 
ought not to fill with despair men who are devotedly- 
attached to their religion. God watches over his 
own. He gave that prince companions well fitted 
to serve him while he lived, and he leaves among us 
brave and experienced captains, able to repair the 
loss we have sustained by his death. I offer you my 
son, the young Piince of Beam; I also confide to 
you Henry of Conde, son of the chief whom we be- 
wail. May it please Heaven that they both show 
themselves worthy heirs of the valour of their ances- 
tors, and may these tender pledges, committed to 
your guardianship, be the bond of your union, and 
the earnest of your future triumph." 1 

Shouts of acclamation followed this address : the 
most timid were reassured, and the boldest panted 
for revenge. The general enthusiasm was kindled 
to a still higher pitch, when the Prince of Beam, 
with warlike vehemence of gesticulation, swore to 
defend the reformed religion, and persevere in the 
common cause, till death or victory restored the 
freedom for which they had fought and bled. The 
young Conde expressed the same resolution, and im- 
mediately the Prince of Bearn was declared general- 
issimo of the Calvinists. 

The immediate political results of this election 
were highly advantageous. There were many nobles 
in the army equal to Coligny in wealth and birth ; 
but though they acknowledged the superiority of 
his military genius, they considered themselves de- 

1 In commemoration of this event, the Queen of Navarre 
caused gold medals to be struck, with the following inscription : 
" Pax certa ; Victoria integra ; Mors honesta." 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 



89 



graded in accepting him as their chief. By placing 
the command in the hands of the Prince of Beam, 
the scrupulous point of honour was satisfied, and the 
admiral became in fact, what the prince only was in 
name. Coligny acted with great prudence in this 
critical emergency. He fortified Cognac, placed in 
it a strong garrison, and retired with the main body 
of his forces to Saintes and Saint Jean D'Angely, 
from which positions he could advance to Cognac if 
besieged, while he was also enabled to open a road 
for the Duke of Deux-Ponts, who was advancing 
with the German auxiliaries. 1 

In this state of affairs the conduct of the royalists 
was feeble, vacillating, and impolitic. The Dukes 
of Aumale and Nemours, relatives of the Cardinal 
of Lorraine, commanded an army fully equal in 
numbers to that of the Duke of Deux-Ponts ; still 
the Bavarian general marched steadily, though 
slowly, through the heart of France. The Duke of 
Anjou did not push on to Cognac, till the town 
had been strongly fortified ; and no sooner did he 
reach it, than he quickly retreated from the walls. 
The solution of these mysterious tactics is to be 
found in the Memoirs of Tavannes, who attributed 
the whole of these faulty operations to the jealousies 
and intrigues of the court. 

Catharine and the Cardinal of Lorraine had again 
become mutually distrustful of each other. During 

1 The army of the Duke of Deux-Ponts, who was called 
"Wolfangus of Bavaria, consisted of fourteen thousand men, and 
among his officers were William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, 
and his two brothers, Louis and Henry, who had quitted the 
Low Countries, to avoid the merciless persecutions of the Duke 
of Alva. — Davila. 



90 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 



the war the queen-mother ruled imperiously, as she, 
in fact, commanded the army through the Duke of 
Anjou : it was for this reason that she had appointed 
the young prince lieutenant-general of the king- 
dom on the death of the constable MontmorencL 
Through her secret agency the Dukes of Aumale 
and Nemours were prevented from attacking the 
Duke of Deux-Ponts on his march, for she feared 
that any victory gained by them would exalt the 
influence of the house of Lorraine, and to the same 
extent diminish her own credit. The subtle car- 
dinal soon penetrated this policy, and determined to 
retaliate with similar insidiousness. He poisoned 
the mind of the young king against his brother; 
he impressed on him that every battle won by the 
Duke of Anjou conferred personal glory on that 
prince ; that on account of his being removed from 
the camp, he would sink in the esteem of his sub- 
jects, who were enamoured of military prowess; 
that it was his interest to remove his brother from the 
command, and transfer it to some of the French 
nobles, or even to a foreigner, recommending the 
Duke of Alva. This discourse told with full effect ; 
rivalry and hatred took full possession of the king's 
heart ; yet Charles stood in such awe of his mother 
that he dared not proceed to the extremity of super- 
seding the Duke of Anjou. He took a middle 
course, by sending such orders to the governors of 
provinces, under his sign-manual, but with strict in- 
junctions to secrecy, as neutralized all the operations 
of his brother. Such is a specimen of the mode in 
which nations are sacrificed by the vile intrigues of 
unprincipled courtiers. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 91 

In the mean time the Duke of Deux-Ponts kepi 
advancing, and after a few slight skirmishes, which 
were ended almost as soon as begun, he encamped, 
on the banks of the Loire. At the moment he ex- 
pected to be detained by the siege of La Charite 
the governor marched out with his garrison, and 
the town opened its gates. The duke crossed the 
river, and proceeded leisurely to the banks of the 
Vienne, where his junction with Coligny was to be 
effected. When about three leagues from Limoges, 
he fell a victim to an obstinate fever, which had 
long menaced his existence. 

The loss ofHhe Bavarian general was immediately 
followed by another of more importance to the Cal- 
vinist cause. It was the death of D'Andelot, the 
first patrician apostle of religious liberty in France, 
a man of spotless integrity and singular hardihood 
of character : frank, open, and generous, he won 
friendship by the affability of his demeanour with 
as much success as the severe principles and re- 
served manners of his brother conciliated esteem. 
Coligny deeply felt this bereavement, but sacri- 
ficing for the moment all private sorrow to a stern 
sense of public duty, he marched from his quarters 
to join the Germans. 

"When the Duke of Deux-Ponts was dying, he 
recommended his soldiers to receive his lieutenant, 
Mansfeldt, as their general. He was obeyed : the 
army swore allegiance to their new chief, and it 
was under his auspices, on the loth of June, 1569, 
four days after the death of the duke, that he ef- 
fected his junction with the admiral in the middle 



92 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

of Guienne, after having started from the banks of 
the Rhine. The confederated forces amounted to 
twenty-five thousand men, but the Catholic army 
still exceeded them in number. They encountered 
each other at La Roche l'Abeille, not in a pitched 
battle, but in a very severe skirmish, and the 
Calvinists had all the advantage of the day. They 
gave no quarter. 

The admiral advanced to Poitiers, to which he 
laid siege. The young Duke of Guise and his 
brother, the Duke of Mayenne, had thrown them- 
selves into the town, with several of the nobility ; 
the garrison was numerous and well supplied with 
provisions. It was attacked and defended with 
equal vigour ; but disease broke out among the Ger- 
mans, who ate immoderately of the fruits which 
autumn abundantly supplied : the epidemic spread 
to the French; whole regiments were rendered 
unfit for service, and Chatellerault became the hos- 
pital of the army. Coligny himself was seized with 
dysentery, but he never abandoned his post. The 
Duke of Anjou, who had marched to the relief of Poi- 
tiers, suddenly retreated, which afforded the admiral 
a pretext to retire without compromising his honour. 

If Coligny was adored by his own party, he was 
admired and esteemed by all the high-minded and 
gallant men among his opponents. None questioned 
the sincerity of his faith ; all praised his invincible 
fortitude. Some officers in the royalist camp sent 
him word of their vast numerical superiority, urged 
him to avoid a battle, and entreated him to listen to 
terms of accommodation. To these admonitions the 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 93 

admiral lent a willing ear; but when it was whis- 
pered that negociations were about to be entered upon, 
the Germans broke out into open mutiny, for their 
pay was in arrear, and they saw no prospect of in- 
demnification, except by pillage. The royal army 
approached, and on the 3rd of October, 1569, the 
battle of Moncontour was fought. Half-an-hour de- 
cided the fate of the Calvinists : they feebly resisted 
the first charge ; the second broke their ranks. A 
pistol-ball shattered the lower jaw of Coligny, but 
he continued to display the courage of a soldier and 
the talent of a general : at length he was compelled 
to yield to numbers. The field of battle, cannon, 
banners, baggage, all fell into the hands of the Cath- 
olics ; and out of an army of twenty-five thousand 
men, only six thousand reached Saint Jean d'Angely 
in safety. 

The great victory of Moncontour obtained for the 
Duke of Anjou the loudest praises of the Catholics, 
but the glory he had acquired rankled in the heart 
of Charles IX. His jealousy was again roused by 
the Cardinal of Lorraine, and he departed for the 
army, hoping that his presence, even after the battle, 
would transfer to his own brow some of the laurels 
which his brother had culled in the hour of danger. 
Nor was the king the only person d'ssatisfied. The 
old generals were piqued at seeing the chief command 
confided to a youth, and Damville, son of the old 
constable, and now governor of Upper Languedoc, 
purposely allowed the Calvinists to escape, that he 
might show the court that they could not do without 
him, and at the same time avenge himself for the 
slight put on his family. 



94 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 



This disunion again enabled the indefatigable 
Coligny to recruit his forces, and try the success of 
another campaign. Early in the spring of 1570, he 
descended from the mountains of Upper Languedoc, 
and marshalled his troops in the plain of Toulouse. 
Hence he advanced to the Loire, pillaging and mas- 
sacring on the route. Arrived in Burgundy, he was 
opposed by Marshal Cosse Gonnor, at the head of 
thirteen thousand men. The strength of the Cal- 
vinists did not exceed six thousand, but they rushed 
boldly on the enemy, on the 25th of June, at Arnay- 
le-Duc, and gained a complete victory. 

This defeat alarmed the court, and the jealousies 
by which it was divided rendered the impending 
danger more imminent. They felt that they could 
strike no blow in concert. Tavannes, under whose 
skilful guidance the Duke of Anjou had achieved his 
victories, had quarrelled with the Cardinal of Lor- 
raine, who had contradicted an opinion given by the 
marshal on military tactics. " Each to his trade, 
Sir Cardinal," retorted Tavannes ; " no man can be 
a good priest and a good soldier." He then tendered 
his dismissal, which was accepted ; but the difficulty 
was how to replace him. The Guises and Montmo- 
rencies had equal pretensions : the queen objected to 
the former as relatives of the cardinal, and the cardi- 
nal persuaded the king to distrust the latter, as re- 
latives of the admiral and the young Prince of Conde. 
All the vigour of the government was thus paralyzed 
by the bickerings of rival parties, while the indomit- 
able perseverance of the Calvinists clearly showed 
that their restless opposition would never cease until 
they were all exterminated by the sword, or conciliated 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 95 

by justice. It was resolved to try the latter experi- 
ment. 

On the second of August, 1570, peace was con- 
cluded at St. Geraiain-en-Laye, where the king was 
residing. The preceding edicts were ratified; a 
general amnesty was granted ; free exercise of the re- 
formed religion, excepting at court, conceded ; confis- 
cated property was restored, and the Calvinists were 
declared eligible to all the offices of state. They 
also obtained two other important privileges ; first, 
they were allowed to challenge six judges on all 
trials, whether presidents or counsellors of the parli- 
aments ; secondly, they were granted four towns of 
security, in which they had the privilege of placing 
governors of their own nomination. They selected 
Rochelle, Montauban, Cognac, and La Charite ; but 
the princes of Beam and Conde, and twenty of the 
principal leaders of their party, were required to take 
an oath that they would surrender them to the king 
in the space of two years. 

In these disastrous wars the chiefs of both parties 
met a violent end. The Duke of Guise, Montmo- 
renci, and Conde were murdered, while Marshal 
Saint Andre and the King of Navarre were slain in 
battle. Thus civil discord and religious bigotry de- 
prived France of some of its ablest citizens, and the 
nation at large was plunged into poverty and deso- 
lated by pillage, foreign enemies alone profiting by 
her misfortunes. 

During these devastating hostilities, Philip II. had 
aided Charles IX., while Elizabeth had assisted the 
Huguenots. The King of Spain regarded the troubles 
of France as his own special and peculiar affair ; but 



m 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 



both his military assistance and advice were injuri- 
ous to his allies, though he derived no personal ad- 
vantage, as he had expected, from his tortuous policy. 
Always disapproving any peace, and constantly re- 
commending the most extreme rigour, he never af- 
forded any sufficient aid to crush the Huguenots, 
but merely such scanty supplies in men and money, 
as encouraged the court to place faith in his sincerity. 
He had no wish to see either party triumph, but 
hoped to strengthen himself as they weakened each 
other. 

The plans of Elizabeth were executed with greater 
tact. As it was one of her main objects to keep her 
Roman Catholic subjects in complete obedience, and 
deprive them of all chance of successful conspiracy 
against her throne, it became her policy to concert 
such measures as would prevent their receiving any 
assistance either from Philip or Charles. Accord- 
ingly she encouraged the troubles in the Low Coun- 
tries and France, and thus fulfilled her object, so far 
as her personal interests were concerned, by protect- 
ing the Protestants of those two nations from being 
overwhelmed. By this conduct England was largely 
benefited ; it secured peace at home, and, by offer- 
ing an asylum to the Flemings, it drew thither their 
manufactures, commerce, and industry. Philip, on 
the contrary, gained nothing by fomenting civil war 
in France, and his whole expenditure for that pur- 
pose was pure loss. 



97 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

FROM THE PEACE OF SAINT GERM AIN-EN-L AYE 
TO HIS DEATH. 



CHAPTER II. SECTION II. 

The last pacification spread joy throughout France, 
and excepting those who were parties to the horrible 
conspiracy that was hatching, all fondly believed 
that the present tranquillity would be permanent. 
On the 23rd of October, 1570, Charles IX. 
married Elizabeth of Austria, second daughter of 
the Emperor, a discreet princess, of sweet temper, 
but reserved character. She possessed the esteem 
and confidence of her husband, but never exercised 
her influence over him, for her mild and gentle tem- 
per quailed under the bold assumption of the impe- 
rious Catharine. To commemorate this event splen- 
did festivals were given, to which the nobility of all 
parties were invited, and a superficial observer would 
have imagined that the words " Huguenot" and 
" Catholic" had been swept from the language, and 
merged in that of Frenchmen. 

"With the ostensible view of conciliating all con- 
flicting interests, but with the real intention of mask- 
ing his perfidious and sanguinary designs, Charles 

H 



98 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

endeavoured to promote various alliances among the 
leading families of the kingdom, and proposed his 
youngest sister, Margaret of Yalois, as the consort of 
the Prince of Beam. As this prince in after years 
achieved an immortal reputation, as Henry IV., a 
brief narrative of his early life will not be misplaced 
in this history. 

The family of Bourbon traces its origin to the 
most illustrious of the kings of France, for Antony, 
father of Henry, was descended from Robert, Count 
of Clermont, who was fifth son of Saint Louis. 
Antony married Jane D'Albret, daughter and heiress 
of Henry D'Albret, King of Navarre, and of Mar- 
garet of Yalois, sister of Francis I. This Henry 
D'Albret was son of John, from whom Ferdinand 
the Catholic had conquered Upper Navarre, and he 
only was able to preserve that portion of his patri- 
monial territories which are on this side of the Pyre- 
nees, a small province, and one of little fertility ; but 
he also enjoyed Bearn, D'Albret, Foix, Armagnac, 
and some other lands bordering on these. 

Antony had commanded an army in Picardy 
against Charles V., and it was in his camp that Jane 
felt the first sensations which announced that she 
was about to become a mother. In the ninth month 
of her pregnancy she repaired to Pau, where her 
father, Henry D'Albret, was residing, and on the 
13th of December, 1553, she was delivered of a son, 
who proved himself worthy of the crown of France. 
The child could not have fallen into better hands 
than those of his grandfather. Henry D'Albret had 
made a will which he always carried in a gold box, 
suspended from his neck with a chain. This object 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 99 

had long excited the curiosity of his daughter. Dur- 
ing the period of gestation she constantly and ear- 
nestly entreated her father to give her the box and 
the will. " It shall be yours one day," said the old 
king, "when you have shown me what you bear, 
provided you have neither a puny nor an ugly child, 
and provided also that during the act of delivery you 
sing a sono* in the dialect of Beam." Jane submitted 
to these conditions : with the first pang she com- 
menced her song. The old man, being summoned to 
her chamber, quickly made his appearance, put the 
gold box and chain round his daughter's neck, placed 
the naked infant in one of the folds of his robe, and 
walked away, saying, " This is for you, my daughter, 
but this belongs to me." The first nourishment the 
child took was from the hand of his grandfather, who 
gave him a clove of garlick, with which he rubbed 
his lips, and seeing that the babe sucked it, he gave 
him some wine. 

The young Henry was brought up in the castle of 
Courasse, in the mountains of Beam. He lived on 
the coarsest diet, his ordinary food being brown 
bread, beef, cheese, and garlic : he used to play with 
the children of the peasants, bareheaded and bare- 
footed. While in his cradle he was called Prince de 
Viane. Shortly afterwards he had the title of Duke 
of Beaumont, and, subsequently, that of Prince of 
Beam. While a child, he was presented to Henry 
II., who asked him if he would be his son. " He is 
my father," said the little prince, in Bearaais, point- 
ing to the King of Xavarre. " Well," replied Henry, 
" will you be my son-in-law V " Oh, with all my 
heart," was the reply. From that early date his 

h 2 



100 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

marriage with the Princess Margaret was resolved 
upon. At Bayonne, the Duke of Medina, looking 
at him earnestly, said, " This prince either will or 
ought to be an emperor." l 

In the Memoirs of Nevers we meet with some let- 
ters, written in 1567, hy the principal magistrates of 
Bordeaux, which contain several interesting particu- 
lars concerning the person and manners of young- 
Henry. " We have here," says one of them, " the 
Prince of Beam : it must be confessed that he is a 
charming youth. At thirteen years of age he has all 
the riper qualities of eighteen or nineteen : he is 
agreeable, polite, obliging, and behaves to every one 
with an air so easy and engaging, that wherever he 
is there is always a crowd. He mixes in conversa- 
tion like a wise and prudent man, speaks always to 
the purpose ; and when it happens that the court is 
the subject of discourse, it is easy to see that he is 
perfectly well acquainted with it, and never says 
more or less than he ought, in whatever place he is. 
I shall all my life hate the new religion for having 
robbed us of so worthy a subject." Another ex- 
presses himself in the following terms : " His hair is 
slightly red, yet the ladies think him not less agree- 
able on that account ; his face is finely shaped, his 
nose neither too long nor too small, his eyes full of 
sweetness, his skin brown but clear, and his whole 
countenance animated by an uncommon vivacity : 
with all these graces if he is not well with the ladies 
he must be extremely unfortunate." Again : " He 
loves diversions and the pleasures of the table. When 
he wants money, he obtains it in a manner quite novel, 

1 These anecdotes are recorded by Cayet, torn. i. p. 240. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 101 

and very agreeable to others as well as to himself. 
This is his plan : to those, whether men or women, 
whom he thinks his friends, he sends a promissory 
note, written and signed by himself, and entreats 
them to send back the note, or the sum mentioned 
in it. Judge if there is any family that can refuse 
him : every one looks upon it as an honour to have 
a note from this prince." 1 

The education of Henry had been carefully at- 
tended to. His first preceptor, La Gaucherie, cul- 
tivated his mind chiefly by conversational instruc- 
tion. He had the wisdom to abandon that trifling 
course of studies which had been invented in an 
age comparatively barbarous, and which was ra- 
ther calculated to disgust than enlighten. La 
Gaucherie, moreover, had the high merit of instil- 
ling into his pupils the purest principles of virtue 
and the noblest sentiments of honour, which ever 
afterwards, if we except the errors of gallantry, 
and these the moralist must condemn, formed the 
undeviating rule of his conduct. At the death of 
La Gaucherie, Henry was confided to the tuition of 
Florent Chretien, a man of great merit; and as he 
was a confirmed Huguenot, he readilv entered into 
the views of the Queen of Navarre, who having 
embraced Calvinism, wished that her son should be 
trained in the new religion. 

Henry was only fifteen years of age when his 
mother conducted him to Rochelle, as has been nar- 
rated. At that early age he remarked the military 
faults of Conde and Coligny, though they were two 
of the greatest captains of the age. At Jarnac, he 
1 Memoires de Nevers, torn. ii. p. 586, et seq. 



102 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

saw the imprudence of giving battle, though it was 
indeed inevitable after the successful manoeuvre of 
Tavannes ; but he had advised an attack on the 
Duke of Anjou, several days before, at a moment 
which in all probability would have proved favour- 
able. During the battle of Montcontour, the ad- 
miral not wishing to expose the person of this young 
prince, whose ardour and impetuosity of character 
were well known, to danger, placed him aside, on a 
hill, with a guard of four thousand horse. The 
advanced column of the Duke of Anjou was broken, 
and if the reserve, with which the prince was, had 
then charged, the Calvinists would have gained the 
victory. Henry desired them to advance, but they 
refused to move, unless ordered by the admiral, on 
which the young hero exclaimed, " We lose the 
battle," a prediction which was fearfully accom- 
plished. 

Such were the promises of future excellence dis- 
played by the Prince of Beam in his youth, all of 
which he realized, or rather exceeded in man- 
hood. He was now invited to marry Margaret of 
Yalois, a union which, it was hoped, would form 
a bond of concord between the Catholics and Cal- 
vinists. His mother, however, without putting a 
decided negative on the arrangement, refused to 
give it her positive sanction, for she had dark fore- 
bodings of sinister designs. This tacit opposition 
disconcerted the court, who now feared the slight- 
est breath of suspicion, lest their exterminating con- 
spiracy should be detected, ere it was ripe for exe- 
cution. They therefore adopted every device to lull 
the Huguenots into a false security. Marshal 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 103 

Montmorenci was sent to Rouen, with the president 
De Marsan, to punish the outrages that had heen 
committed against the Huguenots in that city ; any 
infringement of the last treaty of peace was severely 
punished, and King Charles used to call it em- 
phatically his treaty and his peace. When the 
Guises appeared at court, they were received with 
great coldness, on which they retired to their estates, 
bitterly and loudly complaining that the past ser- 
vices of their family were forgotten ; and so well 
feigned was their assumed indignation that all, ex- 
cept those w^ho were initiated in the secret, believed 
they were sincere. The king next expressed a wish 
that the Prince of Conde should marry Mary of 
Cleves, Marchioness De l'lsle, who had been brought 
up in the court of the Queen of Navarre, and was 
a highly advantageous match ; and, finally, he 
brought about a marriage between Coligny and Jac- 
queline of Savoy, Countess d'Entremont, giving a nup- 
tial present of one hundred thousand crowns, together 
with all the benefices which had been enjoyed by 
Odet de Chatillon, the admiral's brother. 2 

These several acts produced, to a great extent, all 
the effect that was desired ; but distrust was not yet 
totally removed. The king felt it, and in the summer 
of 1571, he took a journey into Touraine, hoping 
that the Queen of Navarre would visit him on his 
route ; nor was he disappointed : she came to his 

1 Memoires de Sully, torn. i. p. 18. 

2 Odet de Chatillon died at Southampton in 1571. De 
Thou declares that his valet de chambre poisoned him with an ap- 
ple, as he was preparing to return to France, when recalled by 
his brother. 



104 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

court from Rochelle, with the Princes of Beam, 
Conde, and the admiral. When Coligny stood 
in the presence of his majesty, out of respect, the 
old soldier was about to fall on one knee. Charles 
saw his intention, seized him by the arm, and pre- 
vented the intended obeisance, saying, " I hold you 
now, admiral, nor shall you for the future quit me 
when you please : I cannot spare so valuable a 
friend." Then, with great emphasis and apparent 
genuineness of feeling, he exclaimed, " This is in- 
deed the happiest day of my life." The queen- 
mother, the Duke of Anjou, and all the attendant 
nobles loaded Coligny with compliments and ca- 
resses, and especially the Duke of Alencon, the 
youngest brother of the king, who, giving full play 
to the vivacity and frankness of youth, expressed 
his esteem for the admiral in terms the most extra- 
vagant. But he alone was sincere ; he was not yet 
old enough to be steeped in the sin of dissimula- 
tion. 

Another bait was held out to Coligny — it was a 
war against Spain, in the Low Countries. The 
king put forward two reasons for these hostilities : 
first, he observed that Elizabeth of England had 
offered the Flemings her protection, and should 
she succeed in expelling Philip, she would reap all 
the advantages of the conquest, to the detriment 
of France; whence he argued that sound policy 
demanded that France should ally herself with the 
Prince of Orange, and thus defeat the schemes of 
the English. Secondly, the king expressed his con- 
viction that his sister Elizabeth, of France, wife 
of Philip II., and who had died in 1568, had been 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 105 

poisoned by lier husband, and this murder he was 
determined to avenge. 1 He added, that he would 
carry the war into Artois and Flanders, the resti- 
tution of which he would demand from the King of 
Spain, as ancient fiefs of his crown, and also Upper 
Navarre, for the Prince of Beam. These declara- 
tions completely won the confidence of Coligny, 
who was not a little flattered, perhaps, at having 
the command of the army, especially in a cause that 
was nearest to his heart. 

The political atmosphere was now serene and 
cloudless, and little did the Calvinists suspect that 
it was the harbinger of a fearful storm. Their leaders 
came fearlessly to Paris, sharing the pleasures of 
the capital, partaking of the hospitalities of the court, 
and visiting all places of public entertainment 
with unbounded confidence. In the middle of May, 
1572, the Queen of Navarre arrived at the Louvre, 
and on the 9th of June she was a corpse. Suspicions 
of poison arose, but the most rigid scrutiny afforded 
no proof to justify the rumour ; still it was gene- 
rally entertained, for the practice had become so 
frequent, that every presumption was in favour of 
the crime. 2 Lignerolles, favourite of the Duke of 

1 The Spaniards attributed her death to bleeding and impro- 
per medicines which the physicians, not knowing that she was 
pregnant, administered. She died shortly after Don Carlos, 
son of Philip, to whom she had originally been betrothed ; and 
Don Carlos was certainly put to death by order of his father. 
All the French historians affirm, that the Princess Elizabeth was 
poisoned. 

* The Queen of Navarre was forty-two years of age when she 
died. Many different opinions prevailed, as to the manner of 
her death. The memoirs of L'Etoile, D'Aubigne, and all the 



106 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

Anjou, suspected of having revealed some secrets of 
the court, was slain before the eyes of that prince ; 
Odet of Chatillon had been poisoned by his servant ; 
and the Seigneur De Moui fell at Niort, under the 
dagger of Maurevel, 1 who was publicly called " The 
king's executioner." Many others of less note had 
suffered the same tragical fate, and these examples 

Calvinists, attributed it to poison, which they say was given to 
her in a pair of gloves, by a Florentine, named Rene, perfumer 
to the queen-mother. Davila expresses himself in the same 
terms. De Serres affirms that the physicians appointed to 
make a post-mortem examination, were strictly enjoined not to 
touch the brain. Le Grain declares that she died of pleurisy. 
La Popeliniere, Perefixe, and De Thou deny that she was 
poisoned; and the last-named writer says that the true cause of 
her death was an abscess in her breast : this opinion is supported 
by Mathieu, the "historian. In the notes to the Henriade it is 
stated that Caillaud, physician to the Queen of Navarre, and 
Desnceuds, her surgeon, dissected her brain, which they found 
sound ; all they detected of irregularity were some globules of 
water, lodged between the cranium and the epicranium which 
covers the skull, which they considered to be the cause of the fre- 
quent head- aches, from which the queen had habitually suffered ; 
moreover, they formally attested that she died of abscess in the 
breast. It should be observed, that those who opened the body 
were Huguenots, and had there been any ground of suspicion, 
their prejudices would have inclined them to attribute her 
death to poison. It may be said that their secrecy was pur- 
chased by the court ; but this would be a most unjust and un- 
founded suspicion, Desnrends was a most zealous Protestant, 
and constantly wrote satires against the court after her death, 
which he would not have dared to have done, had he been 
bribed; nor does he in any one of his libels insinuate that 
Jane D'Albret was poisoned. Moreover, it is not at all credible 
that so wary a woman as Catharine would have made a confidant 
of her perfumer, in a matter of such fearful import. 

1 He was called Nicolas de Louviers, Lord of Maurevel in 
Brie. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 107 

made the suspicion of murder almost universally 
credited. 

The death of the Queen of Navarre retarded the 
marriage of her son, who now assumed the title of 
King of Navarre. During this interval, the admiral 
had retired to his castle at Chatillon-sur-Loing 5 
where he received numerous letters from his friends, 
strongly urging him not to return to Paris. They 
did not rest their warning on any specific fact, but 
their admonitions were rather the result of general 
inferences from current reports and peculiarities of 
conduct which they had observed. To this advice 
Coligny turned a deaf ear ; his habitual caution 
forsook him when it was most needed. His confi- 
dence in the king was unshaken ; he talked of no- 
thing but a treaty, offensive and defensive, between 
France, England 3 and the Protestant princes of 
Germany ; and he already fancied himself at the head 
of the army of Flanders, conquering from Spain the 
civil and religious liberties of the Low Countries. 
Thus buoyed up with hope, he came to Paris, and 
unfortunately communicated his enthusiasm to many 
of his friends. He met, however, an objector in 
Langoiran, one of the gentlemen attached to his 
party, who requested leave of absence. " On what 
account V asked Coligny, utterly astonished. " Be- 
cause they caress you too much," said Langoiran, 
" and I would rather escape with the fools, than 
perish with the wise." 1 

The Prince of Conde and Mary of Cleves had 
already been married. The nuptials of the King 

1 Davila, p. 179. 



108 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

of Navarre and Margaret of Yalois soon followed, 
and they were celebrated with royal magnificence. 
Charles was resolved that the ceremonial of the 
marriage should not be wholly conformable to either 
religion ; not to the Calvinist, because the vows were 
to be received by a priest, who was the Cardinal of 
Bourbon • not to the Romish, because those vows 
were to be received without the sacramental cere- 
monies of the church. A great scaffold was erected 
in the court before the principal gate and entry of 
Notre-Dame, on Monday, August 18th, 1572, upon 
which the parties were betrothed and married on the 
same day, and by one single act. This done, the 
bridegroom retired to a Calvinist chapel to hear a 
sermon, and the bride went into the cathedral to 
hear mass, according to the articles of the treaty of 
marriage ; after which they both attended the enter- 
tainment prepared for them in the great hall of the 
palace. 1 On this occasion Charles gave his sister 
three hundred thousand crowns. 

Four days after the celebration of these inauspi- 
cious nuptials, an attempt was made to assassinate 
the admiral, as he was returning from the Louvre. 
He was fired at from a window screened by a 
curtain; his left arm was broken, and the index 
finger of his right hand shot off. Quite unmoved, 
Coligny cooly pointed out the house from which the 
musket was discharged : his attendants broke open 
the gate, but the perpetrators of the crime had 
escaped. The old man was carried home by his 
servants, weltering in his blood. 

2 Le Grain. Decade de Henri Quatre, torn. ii. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 109 

The assassin was the infamous Maurevel, the same 
who had murdered the Seigneur de Moui. The house 
in which he was secreted belonged to Yillemur, 
who had been preceptor to the Guises, and he was 
met in his flight upon a horse belonging to the king's 
stables. 1 There is no doubt that Catharine alone 
plotted this yillany, of which Charles, with all his 
vices, was innocent. When the news reached the 
king he was playing at tennis ; he threw the 
racket from him in the most violent rage, exclaiming, 
; * Must I be perpetually troubled with new broils ? 
Shall I never have any quiet V ~ 

This horrible outrage kindled the fury of the Cal- 
vinists, who with one voice demanded justice. The 
King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde presented 
a petition to Charles, who pledged his royal word 
that he would take a signal vengeance on the assas- 
sin. The gates of Paris were closed, the police were 
ordered to make domiciliary visits, and arrest all 
persons to whom the slightest suspicion could attach. 
His majesty openly notified his high displeasure to 
all the foreign ambassadors, and wrote to the same 
effect to all the governors of provinces. He visited 
Coligny, accompanied by the queen-mother, the 
Duke of Anjou, the marshals of Fiance, and many 
of the chief nobility. Every expression of condo- 
lence was uttered, calculated to afford consolation to 
the admiral, and ample justice was promised. The 
old man was deeply gratified by this display of at- 

1 Sully, torn. i. p. 33. 
? De Serres, torn. ii. p. 470. Davila says that the king was 
playing with the Duke of Guise, and that he merely feigned 
displeasure. 



110 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

fection and esteem, and at once turned the conversa- 
tion to the war in Flanders, with which scheme he 
was perfectly infatuated. The interview lasted an 
hour, during the whole of which Catharine stood 
close at the side of her son, eager to catch every syl- 
lable; but her vigilance was disappointed, forColigny 
whispered something to the king which made him 
start suddenly, on which the queen -mother trembled 
from head to foot. The very attempt at secrecy 
sealed his doom. 

In the first conversation which Catharine had 
with her son after the admiral had been wounded, 
she told him that her suspicions rested on the Duke 
of Guise, who was prompted to revenge the death of 
his father, assassinated by Poltrot before Orleans, 
the duke having repeatedly declared himself con- 
vinced that Coligny had planned the murder. This 
statement did not satisfy the king, who insisted that 
the Duke of Guise should exculpate himself or be 
punished, and he gave orders for his arrest, which 
the queen-mother countermanded. But a crisis was 
now at hand, for the king had very strong passions, 
and the first bursts of his fury were most terrible. 
Catharine saw no other mode of averting the storm 
than by commissioning Maxshal De Retz to wait on 
Charles, and avow that the Duke of Guise was not 
the only person guilty, but that the queen-mother 
and the Duke of Anjou were his accomplices, and 
that they were forced to assail the life of Coligny, as 
he was secretly plotting to overthrow the govern- 
ment. This message De Retz delivered ; and, as it 
had been agreed upon, Catharine, the Duke of Anjou, 
the Count of Nevers, Birage, keeper of the seals, and 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. Ill 

Marshal Tavannes broke in upon the interview, and 
confirmed all that De Retz had stated. Catharine 
then justified herself, by saying that the admiral had 
privately levied twenty thousand men in Switzerland 
and Germany ; that he intended to unite them to the 
discontented French, and destroy the throne and the 
established religion : she, moreover, observed that 
these designs were known to many of the Catholics, 
who, alarmed at the recent partiality shown by the 
king towards the Huguenots, had determined to 
elect a captain-general, and declare war against 
the heretics. She then pointed out to him that he 
would be reduced to nothingness between the two 
parties, and lose all power and authority in the king- 
dom. 

These considerations, says the Duke of Anjou, (as 
his words are reported by his favourite physician, 
Miron,) produced a marvellous and strange metamor- 
phosis in the king ; for if he had before been difficult 
to persuade, he was now still more difficult to be 
restrained. Rising with fury, and swearing by his 
habitual oath, the death of the Saviour, he exclaimed, 
" Since you deem it right to slay the admiral, I con- 
sent ; but let the slaughter extend to all the Hugue- 
nots in France without exception, for I wish that not 
one may live to reproach me with this decision." 

The massacre of Saint Bartholomew was now re- 
solved upon, and the nights of the 23rd and 24th of 
August, 1572, were fixed for its execution. A pistol 
w^as fired as thejgagnai for the commencement of the 
butchery. The revengeful Guise hurried to the resi- 
dence of the admiral : he was accompanied by two 
of his creatures, Petrucci, a Siennese, and Berne, a 



112 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

German, escorted by a party of soldiers. The ruf- 
fians burst open the doors, and entered the chamber 
of Coligny ; " To death !" they fiercely shouted. The 
old man, hearing the noise, had risen from his bed, 
and was leaning against the wall : he was in the act 
of saying his prayers. Berne was the first who saw 
him. " Are you Coligny V said the German. " I 
am," replied the admiral : " young man, respect my 
grey hairs." Berne at once passed his sword through 
the body of his victim, and, drawing it reeking from 
the wound, smote him on the face : numerous blows 
followed, and the champion of Calvinism fell on the 
floor, weltering in his blood. "It is all over!" 
shouted Berne from the window. " Monseigneur 
D' Angouleme does not believe it," answered the ruth- 
less Guise, " nor will he believe it till he sees the old 
heretic at his feet." The corpse was instantly thrown 
into the court-yard : the Duke of Angouleme wiped 
away the blood from the face that he might identify 
the features, and it is said that he so far forgot him- 
self as to trample it under his feet. 1 

The head of the admiral was carried to Catharine, 
and the Protestant writers affirm that she sent it to 
Rome. The body was dragged through the streets 
by the populace, and hung by the heels on a gibbet 
at Montfaucon, where it was customary to slaughter 
cattle for the Paris market. The king had the in- 
decency to visit this dishonouring spectacle : it was 
remarked to him that the corpse had a bad smell ; he 
answered in the language of Vitellius, " The carcase 
of an enemy always emits a pleasant odour." The 
parliament branded the memory of the hero of Cal- 
1 Esprit de la Ligue, torn. i. p. 295. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 113 

vinism ; his children were degraded to the rank of 
plebeians, and declared incapable of holding any 
public employment; the castle of Chatillon-sur- 
Loing was razed to the ground, and all the trees on 
the estate cut down to within four feet of the ground. 
Notwithstanding these malevolent and bigoted de- 
crees, the admiral's daughter, widow of Teligni, who 
was also murdered at Saint Bartholomew, was sub- 
sequently married to the Prince of Orange. 

The historian Mezeray relates that all the particu- 
lars of the death of Coligny were predicted to him by 
one Michael Crellet, whom the admiral had sentenced 
to be hanged. He told him that he would be assas- 
sinated, thrown out of a window, and hung up by 
the heels. This anecdote is here recorded merely as 
a specimen of the credulity of the times. 

While the murder of the admiral was perpetrating, 
the streets of Paris ran red with blood, and this con- 
tinued during three days. Among those of distin- 
guished families who perished, were Rochefoucauld, 
Crussol, Pluviaut, Berny, Clermont, Lavardin, Cau- 
mont de la Force, Pardillan, Levi, and many thou- 
sands more of brave officers. Rohan, Monto-ommeri, 
and the Yidame of Chartres made their escape. 
Grammont, Duras, Gamaches, and Bouchavannes 
obtained their pardon from the king. " Bleed, 
bleed !" shouted out the merciless Tavannes : u the 
physicians say that bleeding is as good in August as 
in May/' 1 The Dukes of Guise and Montpensier 

1 His son, who wrote his Memoirs, says, that when his father 
was on his death-bed, he made a general confession of his evil 
deeds : when the confessor remarked to him, with an air of aston- 
ishment, " Marshal, you are silent as to what you did on the 
night of Saint Bartholomew ;" '« I consider that," interrupted 

I 



114 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 



rode through the streets, exclaiming, " It is the will 
of the king : slay on to the last, and let not one es- 
cape." Fiercely were these sanguinary orders exe- 
cuted. The Count of Coconnas seized thirty prisoners, 
put them in prison, and offered to spare their lives if 
they would recant : on their refusal, he put them to 
death with his own hand, by slow and lingering tor- 
ments. The butcher, Pezou, who slaughtered men, 
women, and children as he did cattle, boasted of 
having in one day killed and drowned one hundred 
and twenty Huguenots. Rene, perfumer to the 
queen-mother, frequented all the gaols in which the 
Protestants were immured, and amused himself by 
stabbing them with daggers. He decoyed a rich 
jeweller into his house, under the pretext of saving 
him, but when he had seized all his moveables, he 
cut his throat and threw the body into the sea. 
Cruce, a gold-wire drawer, used to take off his coat, 
and exhibit his naked arm, saying, " This arm, on 
the day of Saint Bartholomew, put to death more 
than four hundred heretics." These ruffians were 
armed by the Jesuits, who promised them absolution 
for all other crimes, (for these murders were lauded 
as acts of devotion,) and happiness in heaven in pro- 
portion to the extent of their atrocities. 

Nor did fanaticism alone sharpen the sword or di - 
rect the dagger. The scene of tumult was taken 
advantage of to revenge private malice : defendants 
in actions at law assassinated the plaintiffs, debtors 
slaughtered their creditors, jealous lovers butchered 
their rivals. Antony de Clermont, Marquis of Res- 

the dying man, " as a meritorious action, which will efface all 
my sins." — Notes to the Henriade. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 115 

nel, was murdered by his own relation, Louis de 
Clermont, of Bussy d'Amboise, with whom he was 
then in litigation for the marquisate of Eesnel. 
Charles de Quellenc, Baron of Pont, in Brittany, 
fell a victim to jealousy, and his dead body excited 
the curiosity of the ladies of the court, on account of 
a process for divorce which was then carrying on by 
his wife, Catharine de Parthenay, daughter and 
heiress of John de Soubise. Brantome declares that 
many gentlemen of his acquaintance realized as much 
as ten thousand crowns by pillage, and it is certain 
that the king and queen collected a large stock of 
jewellery plundered from their subjects. 1 

The escape of De Caumont, who became the fa- 
mous Marshal de la Force, and who lived to the ad- 
vanced age of eighty-four, possesses an interest so 
truly romantic, that it merits to be here recorded. 
The facts about to be narrated were written in his 
own hand, and the Duke of la Force communicated 
them to Voltaire, who printed them in his notes to 
the Henriade. 

Two days before the massacre of Saint Bartholo- 
mew, the king had ordered the parliament to liberate 
an officer who was prisoner at the " Conciergerie" 
the prison to which parliamentary prisoners were 
consigned : the parliament having neglected to com- 
ply with this order, the king sent some of his guards 
to break open the gates of the prison, and release the 
prisoner ; on the following day the parliament sent 
a remonstrance to his majesty, and all the members 
of the deputation who presented it had their arms* in 
a sling, to denote that the king had wounded and 
1 Brantome, torn. ix. p. 410. 

i 2 



116 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

maimed justice. These proceedings created a great 
sensation, and when the massacre commenced the 
Huguenots were told that the tumult was no more 
than a seditious rising of the people in favour of the 
parliament, against the prerogative. A horse-dealer, 
who had seen the Duke of Guise and his satellites 
enter the house of Coligny, and who, mixing with 
the crowd, had been an eye-witness of the murder of 
the admiral, hurried to Caumont de la Force, to 
whom he had, eight days before, sold ten horses, and 
apprized him of his danger. 

La Force and his two sons lodged in the faubourg 
Saint Germain, as did many other Calvinists. No 
bridge at that time connected the faubourg with the 
town. All the boats had been seized by orders from 
the court to convey the assassins into the faubourg. 
The horse-dealer swam across the river, and thus 
gave information to La Force. He had already left 
his house ; he had time to save himself; but seeing 
that his children did not follow him, he turned back 
to find them. Scarcely had he entered his dwelling 
when the murderers arrived : one, named Martin, 
who was their leader, entered his apartment, dis- 
armed him and his sons, and, with accents of fury, 
told him to prepare for death. La Force offered a 
ransom of two thousand crowns, which was accepted, 
and he took his oath to pay it within two days : the 
assassins, having pillaged the house, desired La Force 
and his sons to put their handkerchiefs on their 
hats in the shape of crosses, and tuck up the sleeves 
of their right arms up to their shoulders ; this was 
the mark by which the assassins distinguished each 
ether. In this state they passed the river, and 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 117 

were conducted into the town. Marshal de la 
Force declares that he saw the river covered with 
dead bodies : his father, his brother, and him- 
self were landed nnder the walls of the Louvre; 
there they saw many of their friends butchered, 
among; others the brave De Piles, father of him who 
slew the son of Malherbe in a duel. Martin led his 
prisoners to his house, in the street des Petits- Champs, 
and made La Force swear that neither himself nor 
his children would quit it till the two thousand 
crowns were paid : he then left them under the guard of 
two Swiss soldiers, and departed to seek fresh victims. 
One of the two Swiss, touched with compassion, 
offered to save the prisoners, but La Force re- 
fused to accept this generous assistance, saying that 
he had pledged his word, and that he would rather die 
than forfeit it. One of his aunts sent him the 
two thousand crowns, and they were about being- 
paid over to Martin, when the Count of Coconnas, 
the same who was afterwards decapitated, arrived, 
and told La Force that the Duke of Anjou wished 
to speak with him. La Force then saw that his 
death was certain ; he followed Coconnas, beseech- 
ing him to spare his two innocent children. The 
younger, who was thirteen years of age, named 
James Nompar, and who wrote this statement, re- 
proached the murderers with their crimes, invoking 
on them the vengeance of Heaven. However, the 
two boys were dragged along with their father to 
the end of the street of Petits-Champs : the elder 
received several blows from a dagger, exclaiming, 
" O, my father ! O, my God ! I am dead." At 
the same moment the father fell a corpse on the 



118 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

body of his slaughtered child. The younger, covered 
with their blood, but who miraculously had escaped 
any wound, had the prudence also to exclaim, " I 
am dead." He fell down between his father and 
brother, whose last sighs were breathed into his ear. 
The assassins thinking they were all dead, went 
away, saying, " There is an end of the three." Some 
plunderers came to strip their bodies : the young 
La Force had on laced stockings ; a marker of a 
tennis-court, named Yerdelet, wished to possess him- 
self of these stockings, and as he drew them off, 
he commiserated the fate of the victim, and said, 
" Alas ! this is a great pity : it is but a child ; what 
could he have done V This expression of kindness 
induced the young La Force gently to raise his head 
and whisper, " I am not yet dead." The man 
kindly answered, " Stir not, my child ; have pa- 
tience till I come again." He then left him, but re- 
turned in the dusk of the evening, and announced 
his presence by saying, " Raise yourself up ; there 
is no one near but your friend," and then put over 
his shoulders a tattered mantle. As he was leading 
him along, he was met by one of the assassins, who 
called out, " "Who is this youth V " It is my ne- 
phew," answered his conductor. "The young | dog 
has got drunk, and I am going to give him a 
sound horsewhipping." At length the poor tennis- 
marker got him into his house, and demanded thirty 
crowns for his trouble. Thence the young La 
Force, disguised as a beggar, was taken to the 
arsenal, where his relative, Marshal Biron, grand 
master of the artillery, resided ; he was there con- 
cealed in the dress of a girl in the women's apart- 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 119 

ments ; but it being rumoured that he was alive, 
and the emissaries of the court searching after him, 
he was sent into the country, as a page, under the 
name of Beaupuy. 

While these atrocities were being perpetrated in 
the streets of Paris, the Louvre itself was the scene 
of sanguinary outrage. All the Calvinist nobles 
then in the royal residence, and who had come to 
Paris to celebrate the nuptials of the King of Na- 
varre, were called out one by onq, and killed in the 
court -yard by the soldiers, w^ho stood in two long 
ranks, with arms ready to execute their sanguinary 
orders. In this manner two hundred were mas- 
sacred, and, including others slaughtered in various 
parts of Paris, five hundred of the Protestant no- 
bility perished. 1 

Margaret of Yalois had only been married six 
days. That princess relates all that fell within her 
own observation in her Memoirs. As she was about 
to retire for the night, on the eve of Saint Bartholo- 
mew, and had saluted her mother, her sister seized 
her by the arm, and sobbing loudly, whispered to 
her, " Dear sister, do not go." Catharine overheard 
this intimation : she was greatly irritated, and re- 
proached her eldest daughter for her indiscretion. 
Angry words were interchanged, but Margaret was 
peremptorily ordered to leave the room, when the 
tears of her sister flowed anew. " As to myself," 
says Margaret, " I did as my mother commanded, 
chilled with vague apprehensions, but utterly at a 
loss to imagine what danger I had to fear." 

When she entered her chamber, she saw her hus- 
i Davila, p. 183. 



120 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

band, surrounded by thirty or forty Huguenot gen- 
tlemen, whose persons she did not know : they re- 
mained during the whole night, and talked of no- 
thing but the assassination of the admiral. At the 
dawn of day, the King of Navarre quitted the 
apartment with his friends, when the young queen, 
wearied with watching, locked her door, and fell 
asleep. 

Within an hour afterwards she started from her 
couch, being roused by a man who struck at her 
door with his hands and feet, and cried out at the top 
of his voice, " Navarre ! Navarre !" The queens nurse, 
thinking it was the king, turned the key, when a 
man, covered with blood, rushed into the room, 
pursued by four soldiers, who entered as quickly as 
himself: the fugitive was wounded in the elbow 
by a sabre cut, and a pike had been passed through 
his shoulder. " Eager to save himself," continues 
Margaret, " he threw himself on my bed, and 
clasped me round the neck. I slid down on the 
floor, but his grasp w^as firm, and he fell alongside 
of me. I had never seen the man before, and, in 
my excess of fear, I knew not whether his purpose 
was to insult me, or whether the soldiers sought him 
or me as their victim." At length the captain of 
the guard arrived, who dismissed the men, and 
spared the life of the fugitive, 1 at the earnest en- 
treaties of the queen. The officer then conducted 
Margaret to the apartments of her sister, who had 
given her the friendly warning above described. As 

1 The gentleman who took refuge in the apartment of the 
Queen of Navarre, was Gaston de Levis, Lord of Leyran. — 
Sully, torn. i. p. 40. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 121 

she entered the ante-chamber, a Huguenot gentle- 
man was pierced through the body with a pike at 
three paces distant ; the terrified lady fainted away, 
and some time elapsed before she regained the use 
of her faculties. 

When her senses returned, all her feelings were 
again agonized for the sake of her husband, but she 
was quickly told that he was safe. Charles had 
already summoned him and the Prince of Conde 
into his presence. He received them, says Sully, 
with a fierce countenance, and eyes sparkling with 
rao-e, and avowed that the admiral and the other 
rebels had been massacred by his orders. He then 
expressed his conviction that they had not impli- 
cated themselves in the conspiracy of the Huguenots, 
though they might have listened to their regicidal 
counsels ; and he then offered to pardon them, if 
they would abjure their false religion and profess 
the faith of the church of Rome. Their answer 
being ambiguous and unsatisfactory, Charles gave 
them three days to consider the matter and come to 
a decision. 1 

The massacre was not confined to Paris. Orders 
to exterminate the Huguenots were forwarded to all 

1 As the King of Navarre went to the King, Catharine gave 
orders that he should be led under the vaults, and made to 
pass through the guards drawn up in files on either side, and 
standing in menacing attitudes. At this unexpected sight he 
trembled and recoiled back several paces, on which Nancai-la- 
Chartre, captain of the guards, endeavoured to reaiove his ap- 
prehensions, by swearing that the soldiers should do him no 
harm. Henry, though he gave but little credit to his words, 
was obliged to walk on amidst the carabines and halberts. — 
Ptrtfixe. 



122 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

the provincial governors, and the commandants of 
cities. The slaughter was horrible at Meaux, 
Angers, Bourges, Orleans, Lyons, Toulouse, and 
Rouen, and in a very many of the small towns and 
villages ; but humanity had not entirely quitted 
France. Claude de Savoy, Count of Tende, saved 
the lives of all the Protestants in Dauphiny. When 
he received the king's letter, commanding him to 
destroy them, he said, " That it could not be his 
majesty's order, and that he would treat it as a 
forgery/' Eleonor de Chabot, Count of Charny, the 
lieutenant-general commanding in Burgundy, acted 
in the same spirit ; there was only one Protestant 
murdered at Dijon. Heran de Montmorin, gover- 
nor of Auvergne, positively refused to obey his instruc- 
tions, unless the king was personally present. The 
Viscount of Ortes, governor of Bayonne, wrote in 
the following terms to Charles : " Sire, I have com- 
municated your majesty's orders to your faithful in- 
habitants in the city and to the troops in the garrison. 
I found there good citizens, brave soldiers, but not 
one executioner. On this point, therefore, you must 
not expect any obedience from me. 1 " 

Historians have recorded one act of personal ge- 
nerosity, amidst these diabolical crimes, which, how- 
ever, is of an extraordinary character and marked by 
the ferocity of the times. Yezins, a gentleman of 
Querci, had long been on the worst terms with 
one of his neighbours, named Eegnier, a Calvinist, 

1 Sully, torn. i. p. 45. De Thou, lib. 52, and 53. D'Aubigne, 
torn. ii. lib. 1. The Count de Tende, and the Viscount of Ortes, 
both of whom died shortly afterwards, were supposed to have 
been poisoned. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 123 

whom he had sworn to put to death. They 
both were at Paris during the massacre, and Eegnier 
feared that Yezins. availing himself of this opportu- 
nity, would put his threat into execution. While 
in this state of alarm, the door of his apartment 
was broken open, and Yezins entered, sword in 
hand, accompanied by two soldiers. * ; Follow me." 
said he to Eegnier, in a harsh and abrupt tone. 
Eegnier, filled with consternation, walked on be- 
tween the two soldiers, assured that he was going to 
instant death. Yezins told him to mount a horse : 
they rode out of the city. Without stopping, or 
without a word being exchanged, Yezins escorted 
his prisoner to his house at Querci. " You are 
now in safety," said he : ;; I could have profited 
of this opportunity to obtain my revenge, but be- 
tween brave men danger ought to be shared ; for 
that reason I have saved you. "When you will, 
you will find me ready to settle our disputes as it 
becomes gentlemen." Eegnier answered by warm 
expressions of gratitude, demanding the friendship 
of his enemy. " I leave you free to love me or hate 
me," replied the fierce Yezins, " and I have only 
brought you to your castle, that you may still live 
to make your election." Without waiting another 
moment, he put spurs into his horse, and rode back 
to the capital. 

One of the most atrocious circumstances attend- 
ing this massacre, was the personal conduct of the 
king, who fired loaded muskets en the people from 
the windows of the Louvre. Brantome declares 
that as soon as the light dawned, after the night of 
the 23rd, the king posted himself at the window of 



124 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

his bed-room, and seeing some stragglers who were at- 
tempting to escape, took np a large fowling-piece, 
and fired into the midst of them ; but the intended 
victims were out of range of the shot. Many persons 
heard Marshal de Tesse relate, that in his youth he 
knew a gentleman upwards of one hundred years old, 
who, when young, had served in the guards of 
Charles IX. He inquired of him the particulars of 
Saint Bartholomew, and specially asked him if it 
were true that the king had fired upon his subjects. 
" It was myself, sir," said the old man, " who loaded 
the muskets. 1 " 

The notes to the Henriade mention two other 
circumstances connected with the massacre, which 
savour strongly of the marvellous, but they merit 
record, as showing in some degree the spirit of the age. 
Henry IY. declared openly that, after the slaughter, 
a number of ravens perched on the Louvre, and 
during seven nights the king and all the court heard 
their croakings, which were most loud and lugubri- 
ous, at the same hour. He mentions another prodigy 
still more extraordinary. He says that for several 
days before the murders commenced, while playing 
at dice with the Dukes of Alencon and Guise, he 
saw drops of blood on the table ; that he twice wiped 
them off, when they reappeared, on which he quit- 
ted the game, seized with terror. 

At the expiration of the three days which Charles 
had granted to the King of Navarre and the Prince 
of Conde, in which interval they were to make up 
their minds either to recant or die, the king sum - 

1 Notes to the Henriade. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 125 

moned them into his presence, and, in a tone of 
thunder, said to them, " Death, the mass, or the 
bastille ; take your choice." The King of Navarre 
and his sister, Catharine of Bourbon, yielded at 
once. The Prince of Conde showed some resistance, 
but at length he submitted to his inexorable tyrant, 
as well as Mary of Cleves, his wife, and Frances of 
Orleans, his mother-in-law. All w^rote to the pope 
declaring; their conversion, and received absolution 
from the Cardinal of Bourbon. The King of 
Navarre did more; he ordered throughout all his 
dominions the re-establishment of the Romish reli- 
gion, and prohibited the Calvinistic form of wor- 
ship. 

Every possible publicity was given to these conver- 
sions ; and though they were manifestly extorted by 
force, it was industriously circulated that they were 
the result of pious reflection and heart-felt conviction, 
and they were adduced as arguments to prove the 
justice and utility of the massacre. After three 
days the slaughter ceased by royal mandate, 1 when 
the king went to the parliament, and held a bed of 
justice. He there declared that after an uninter- 
rupted succession of revolts and treasonable acts 
against the throne, which had been a thousand times 
pardoned, Coligny crowned his crimes by a deter- 
mination to exterminate himself, the queen-mother, 
the Dukes of Anjou and Alencon, and the King of 
Navarre, although the last belonged to his party ; 
that, after these assassinations, the admiral had in- 
tended to proclaim the Prince of Conde king ; but , 

1 Sully makes the number of victims 70,000,— Perefixe raises 
the number to 100,000. 



126 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

his reign was only to be temporary, as Coligny had 
marked him out as an early victim, and when he had 
thus destroyed the whole of the royal family, he had 
resolved to place the sceptre in his own hands. In 
this insidious harangue, there w T as not a particle of 
truth ; had there been any evidence of such a con- 
spiracy, the king might easily have condemned the 
admiral judicially, and executed him as a traitor. 
So wretched an attempt at justification only in- 
creases the guilt of those who planned the massacre 
of Saint Bartholomew. 

Charles adopted a similar plan to exculpate him- 
self with foreign courts, to whom he wrote, stating 
that he was compelled to adopt these sanguinary 
measures in order to disconcert the machinations of 
the Huguenots ; as if it were possible that all who 
suffered had conspired, and that even their assumed 
leaders had taken no precautions for their own per- 
sonal safety. 

The sensation produced in different countries was 
extremely different. Fenelon, then ambassador in 
England, blushed at being a Frenchman, when he 
found himself compelled to present to the queen the 
dispatches of his master, which represented this 
monstrous act of treason against his subjects as an 
act of prudence. When he attended the hall of au- 
dience, the whole court were arrayed in deep mourn- 
ing ; a gloomy silence was preserved ; no friendly 
eye was turned towards him ; every countenance was 
mournful and downcast. Pie approached the queen, 
who neither rose from her throne nor extended her 
hand, according to the courtesy of the times. Eliza- 
beth read the documents with marked displeasure, 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 127 

manifested her astonishment and indignation, blamed 
the council of France, and expressed her pity for the 
king. 1 

A cry of horror rang through Germany. Many 
writings were there published, all denouncing the 
massacre, which was characterized as a compound of 
trickery, perfidy, and wickedness, exceeding in tur- 
pitude all that had ever been perpetrated in the an- 
nals of tyranny. The court of France was the more 
sensitive to these animadversions, as they were then 
neo'ociatin^ to secure the crown of Poland for the 
Duke of Anjou, and the prejudices and antipathies 
excited among the Germans were calculated to frus- 
trate their expectations. A deputation was sent to the 
Protestant princes to disarm their resentment. The 
pleas of justification were various; some excused the 
whole transaction, others only defended a part, but 
all insisted on the necessity of the massacre itself, on 
account of the regicidal intentions of the admiral, as 
a crime proved to the full satisfaction of the parlia- 
ment, whose sentence was held to be conclusive and 
incontrovertible. These explanations and apologies 
produced but little effect in Germany, where the as- 
sassins of the Calvinists were still held in abhorrence 
by the vast majority of the people. 

Intelligence of the murder of Coligny and his as- 
sociates was received at Rome with acclamations of 
joy. Cannon were fired, bonfires lighted, and the 
city was illuminated, as if to celebrate some most 
glorious achievement. A solemn mass was performed, 
at which Pope Gregory XII. officiated, with ail the 
imposing ceremonies peculiar to the church of Rome. 
1 Condillac, torn, xiii. p. 184. 



128 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

The Cardinal of Lorraine largely rewarded the cou- 
rier who brought the news. Brantome declares that 
the sovereign pontiff shed tears when he heard a de- 
tail of the excesses committed. " I cannot but 
w^eep," said his holiness, " when I reflect how many of 
the innocent perished with the guilty ; and the more 
so when I consider that many of the guilty, had they 
lived longer, might have repented and made their 
peace with God." 1 " A sentiment of compassion," 
observes Anquetil, " not incompatible . with those 
public demonstrations which policy required, whilst 
pity, at the bottom of his heart, vindicated the rights 
of humanity, so fearfully outraged." 2 This surely is 
a dangerous morality, which permits in public what 
is condemned in privacy, which distinguishes between 
the natural and the artificial man, and throws the 
mantle of hypocrisy over the spotless form of virtue. 3 
It was at Madrid that the horrible crime was wel- 
comed with the loudest plaudits : Philip then showed 
for the first time that he was sensible to joy. He had 
given no outward sign of pleasure when he heard of 
the great naval victory of Lepanto over the Turks, but 
his sombre gravity now forsook him, and his black 
heart gloated with delight over the streams of blood 
that had reddened the streets of Paris. He made mu- 
nificent presents to the courier, Avrote an autograph 
letter of congratulation to Charles IX., caroused with 

1 Brantome, torn. ix. p. 190. 2 Esprit de la Ligue, t. i. p. 312. 
3 A medal was struck at Rome to commemorate the massacre. 
On one side was the head of Pope Gregory, on the other, an ex- 
terminating angel, striking down the Huguenots, some of whom 
were represented as fleeing from his wrath, while others were 
being trampled under his feet. It had the following brief in- 
scription : "HlJGONOTORUM STRAGES." 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 129 

his courtiers, — rejoiced in public, and summoned all 
the functionaries of the state to wait on him and 
tender their felicitations. The admiral of Castile 
read the French dispatches at a table, at which the 
Duke de l'lnfantado was seated. " Were Coligny 
and his friends Christians ?" ingenuously asked that 
young prince. " Undoubtedly, they were," replied 
the admiral. " Why then, since they were Christians, 
were they butchered like wild beasts?" " Gently, 
my prince," said the admiral, " know you not that 
the war of France is the peace of Spain ?" ' 

It is extremely difficult to decide at what date the 
massacre of St. Bartholomew was really decided 
upon. The more zealous of the Calvinist writers 
unhesitatingly state that it was plotted at Bayonne, 
when Catharine and the royal family assembled in 
that city with the Duke of Alva and the Spanish 
envoys. This, however, seems to be an unfounded 
suspicion ; and the better opinion is, that those con- 
ferences related to an alliance between the pope, 
France, and Austria, to extirpate the Protestant 
party by open warfare. At any rate, there is no 
certainty whatever that the massacre, which was ex- 
ecuted eight years afterwards, was resolved upon at 
these interviews. 

Equally embarrassing is it to determine the real 
extent of criminality which historical justice ought 
to impute to Charles, though the guilt of Catharine 
is cumulative and unequivocal. If we are to believe 
the Memoirs of Villeroi, who gives Miron, the phy- 
sician of the Duke of Anjou, for his authority, and 
whose statement has been already quoted, it would 
1 Brantome, torn. ix. p. 189. 

K 



130 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

seem that Charles had no knowledge of the con- 
spiracy, till after Coligny had been wonnded by 
Maurevel; and, moreover, that his resolution was 
only formed after Catharine had avowed that she 
herself, and the Duke of Anjou had authorized the 
assassination. It certainly does not appear probable 
that the Duke of Anjou, were the fact true, would 
ever have made his physician the confidant of so dis- 
honouring a secret, or branded himself with eternal 
infamy to preserve the character of a brother by 
whom he was distrusted, envied, and ultimately 
hated. Again : Villeroi was a furious partizan, and 
many of his declarations are so rash and intemperate, 
that little confidence can be placed in his veracity. 
He accuses Coligny, without the least reserve or 
qualification, of having intended to murder the king, 1 
of which there is not a shadow of proof; and stigma- 
tizes his memory, by saying, that all the great actions 
which he performed, were against his God, his reli- 
gion, his country, and his sovereign. 

There is the strongest evidence to show that 
Charles invited Coligny to Paris for the express pur- 
pose of putting him to death. The historian Ma- 
thieu affirms that the king deceived the admiral from 
the first to the last.- Sully declares, that though the 
Guises were ostensibly slighted, and had even re- 
tired from the court, yet they were twice discovered 
in masks, conversing with the king, the queen-mo- 
ther, the Duke of Retz, and the Chancellor de 
Birague. 3 When the marriage of the Prince of 
Beam and Margaret of Valois was first spoken of, 

1 Villeroi, torn. iv. 325, 340. 2 Mathieu, torn. i. lib. 6. 
3 Sully, torn. i. p. 32. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 131 

the pope protested against the union, declaring that 
he would never grant a dispensation ; and with a 
view to prevent their union, he dispatched his 
nephew, Cardinal Alexandrino, to Paris, with the 
authority of legate, instructing him to remonstrate 
with the king against the heretical alliance. The 
cardinal acted up to the very letter of his orders, 
and pressed Charles so closely, that he scarcely 
knew how to reply. At length, labouring under great 
apparent embarrassment, he said, " Would to God, 
Sir Cardinal, that I could tell you all : you will, how- 
ever, soon know as well as the sovereign pontiff, 
that there is nothing more calculated to establish 
true religion in France and exterminate its enemies, 
than this marriage. Yes," he continued, warmly 
pressing the cardinal's hand, " believe my royal 
word ; yet a little time, and the holy father himself 
will praise my plans, my piety, my devotion to the 
true faith/' Having thus expressed himself, he at- 
tempted to slip a valuable diamond ring on the fin- 
ger of the legate; but the prelate declined it, 
thanked his majesty, and said that he was perfectly 
satisfied with his royal word. 1 

It is true that this conversation rests on the au- 
thority of Italian writers, and De Thou gives a gen- 
eral caution to distrust their statements; but he 
does not say that they are wholly unworthy of credit ; 
and even if he had done so, the sweeping illiberality 
of the sentiment would have been its own condemna- 
tion. It was Pius Y. who refused the dispen- 
sation : he died in April, 1571, and was succeeded 
by Gregory XIII. ; the Cardinal of Lorraine per- 
1 Davila, p. 177. 

K 2 



132 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

suaded him to sanction the marriage : is it not then 
reasonable to infer that Charles IX. did give the 
pledge mentioned to the legate, and that that pledge 
was confirmed by the Cardinal of Lorraine ? Surely 
the sovereign pontiff would not have sanctioned this 
heretical alliance without a strong motive; and 
what assignable motive was there, but the promised 
extirpation of the Huguenots ? 

The duplicity of Charles was tortuous and sub- 
tle beyond his age. With all his professions of 
esteem towards the admiral and his friends, the 
sincerity of his heart was suspected by many. It 
is well known, says Sully, that the king one day 
said to Catharine, " Do I not play my part well ? " 
To which she answered, " Very well, my son, but 
you must hold out, to the end." ! There is no mean- 
ing in language, unless expressions such as these are 
received as cumulating proofs of guilt. 

That the massacre was perpetrated at an earlier 
date than Charles intended, and that it was more 
extensive than he had originally designed, is pro- 
bable. That the admiral had produced some slightly 
favourable impression on his mind, from the flatter- 
ing confidence he placed in his royal word and 
honour, may be admitted ; moreover, Coligny had 
kindled his ambition, and urged him to assert his in- 
dependence of his mother ; he had exhorted him to 
accompany the army to Flanders, and not allow the 
Duke .of Anjou to gather the laurels due to himself, 
as his brother had already done at Jarnac and Mon- 
contour ; and as these admonitions precisely accorded 
with those the king had formerly received from the 
1 Sully, torn. i. p. 22. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 133 

Cardinal of Lorraine, they were the more calculated 
to produce a deep impression. It was this very ad- 
vice that Coligny whispered into the ear of Charles 
at their last interview, after he was wounded ; and 
though Catharine heard it not, her conscience, ever 
timid, roused her to the sense of immediate danger : 
she feared that if she once lost her hold on her son, 
she would never regain her influence, and this it was 
that urged her to insist on the immediate execution 
of the massacre. But the deed itself had been long 
resolved upon, though the day had not been fixed, 
and in the premeditation of the murderous outrage 
the mother and the son were equally guilty. 

Whatever expectations the court might have en- 
tertained of the pacificatory results of the massacre of 
Saint Bartholomew, they were miserably disappointed. 
The slaughter of men, women, and children neither 
extinguished principles, settled controverted points of 
doctrine, or weakened the right of private judgment ; 
moreover, extensive as it was, it was far from being 
complete. Many of the Huguenots had saved them- 
selves in England, in Germany, and the Low Coun- 
tries, where their presence excited the pity and 
roused the indignation of their fellow Protestants. 
Others, who could not escape from France, had 
fortified themselves at Montauban, Nimes, and 
Rochelle, and these three towns formed themselves 
into a confederation, declaring their union an in- 
dependent republic. The party, far from being 
crushed, soon amounted to eighteen thousand armed 
men, and became masters of a hundred towns, 
castles, and fortresses. So great was the sympathy 
excited in England for the cause of the French re- 



134 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

formers, that Condillac 1 states that the nobility of- 
fered to raise twenty thousand infantry and four 
thousand cavalry, land them in France, and main- 
tain them for six months at their own expense : but 
Elizabeth, disapproving of this chivalrous crusade, 
prohibited the expedition. 

The fourth religious war now commenced, and a 
royal army, under the command of Marshal Biron, 
marched to Rochelle, the strongest town belonging 
to the confederates, possessing every facility of re- 
ceiving aid from England, by its position on the sea- 
coast, and remarkably strong both by nature and art. 
It was surrounded by marshes, which extended 
several miles, and there was only one road to the 
city, which was on the north side; the entrance- 
gate was fortified with moats, walls, bulwarks, and 
ramparts ; and these were so judiciously arranged, 
flanking and guarding each other, that the place was 
deemed almost impregnable. The harbour is ap- 
proachable with almost any wind, and the shore is 
so shelving, that a blockading squadron cannot with 
safety ride there long at anchor, in consequence of 
the frequent and violent gales that prevail in that 
quarter. The garrison was composed of fifteen hun- 
dred regular soldiers, and two thousand citizens, 
highly disciplined and inured to arms ; besides, they 
were animated by those elevated and elevating prin- 
ciples of liberty, to which the mere mercenary is in- 
sensible. The inhabitants bade defiance to their ene- 
mies, and saw without dismay the main army 
encamp under their walls, led by the Duke of An- 
jou, accompanied by his brother, the Duke of 
1 Tom. xiii. p. 186. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 135 

Alencon, the flower of the nobility, and even the 
King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde. The 
siege commenced in the first days of February, but 
every attack was vigorously repulsed. 

In the prosecution of this war, the conduct of the 
king was most extraordinary. La Noue, a fearless 
soldier, a skilful general, and a zealous Protestant, 
had escaped the massacre, being at the time absent 
in the Low Countries, whither he had been sent by 
Coligny to collect such intelligence as might be use- 
ful before the campaign in Flanders was commenced. 
On his return to France, Charles received him with 
open arms, and gave him the estates of Teligny, his 
brother-in-law, all of which had been confiscated. 
The king entreated La Noue, who, in the preceding 
wars, had commanded at Rochelle, to use his in- 
fluence with the inhabitants to accept terms of peace, 
which, at first, he peremptorily refused to do ; but, 
after a long struggle, yielding to the importunities of 
the king, and influenced by the hope of being ser- 
viceable to his party, he accepted this delicate com- 
mission, and executed it in a manner that commanded 
universal admiration. 

When La Noue reached a village immediately 
contiguous to Rochelle, he sent a messenger to an- 
nounce his arrival, and requested a conference with 
the deputies of the town. They presented them- 
selves, but feared that some treason lurked beneath 
his overtures. Their answer left him the choice of 
one of three alternatives ; either a safe passage to 
England, — a residence in Rochelle as a private in- 
dividual, — or the governorship of the city, with the 
command of the troops. He determined to accept 
the office of their general. 



136 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

There was no order among the royalists, no unity 
of action, no combination of plans ; each officer 
acted as he pleased, and the results were defeat and 
disgrace. The Duke of Aumale was shot in the 
trenches, and many prisoners taken by the Rochelois, 
among others, Cosseins, who had broken open the 
house of the admiral on the night of his assassination, 
and on whom they took an ample revenge. The 
Calvinist preachers completely swayed the inhabi- 
tants of the town, and one of them, named La Place, 
in the excess of a frantic zeal, accused La Noue of 
being a traitor, and even struck him in the face, 1 to 
which the governor had the manliness to submit, 
rather than injure the cause of religious liberty : but 
he determined to quit a post which he could not fill 
with satisfaction, and availing himself of a sortie, he 
went over to the Duke of Anjou. But though the 
beleaguered city thus lost its general, the resistance 
continued as undaunted as when he held the com- 
mand, the courage and fortitude of the people being 
sustained by James Henry, the major, and Arendel, 
his lieutenant, an officer of great skill and prudence. 

What the result of the siege might have been, had 
military discipline been observed by the besiegers, is 
extremely doubtful, for it is certain they sacrificed 
many advantages through their moral disorganiza- 
tion. The Duke of Anjou, on hearing that the ne- 
gociations opened to secure to himself the crown of 
Poland wore a most favourable aspect, at once forgot 
all his duty to France, and passed his time with his 
favourites in planning schemes of pleasure and mag- 
nificence on his installation at Warsaw. As an ad- 
ditional misfortune to the royalists, an epidemic broke 
1 Davila, p. 191. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 



137 



out among the troops, and forty thousand men 
perished in this expedition by the sword and by 
disease. The exhausted state of the royal exchequer 
compelled the cessation of hostilities ; and on the 6th 
of July, 1573, a treaty of peace was signed, which 
guaranteed to the inhabitants of Rochelle, Montau- 
ban, and Nimes the free exercise of their religion. 
Marshal Biron was appointed titular governor of 
Rochelle, for no garrison was allowed, and tran- 
quillity was once more restored. 

The election of the Duke of Anjou having been 
now confirmed, that prince took his departure for 
Poland, and his absence was the signal for fresh 
cabals at the court. His brother, the Duke of Alen- 
9on, assumed the title of Duke of Anjou, and claimed 
the rank of lieutenant-general of the kingdom, which 
Catharine refused him. He at once allied himself 
with the discontented party, at the head of which 
were the Montmorencies, whose disaffection pro- 
ceeded from two causes. In the first place, as re- 
lations of Admiral Coligny, they were deeply in- 
censed at his cruel and cowardly assassination ; and 
their resentment was the more fiercely kindled on 
account of the indignities offered to his mutilated 
body, which they considered an insult to their own 
blood. Secondly, they mortally hated the Princes 
of Lorraine, whose influence had stripped the Mont- 
morencies of that military sway which the family 
had enjoyed under so many reigns, and which they 
deemed to be a matter of hereditary right. The 
King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde joined 
this cabal, with very many of the young Catholic 
nobility, who pitied Coligny as a brave warrior, and 



138 REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 

detested the Guises, for endeavouring to monopolize 
all the honours and emoluments of the court for 
themselves and their favourites. To these were 
added many who complained of the pressure of tax- 
ation. This mixed party, thus united together by 
various motives, were called the Politicals or Mal- 
contents. 

The enterprise they intended to execute was 
called the conspiracy of Shrove Tuesday, because 
the designs of the conspirators were to have been 
carried into effect on that day ; but, through bad 
management, it failed. The object was to enable the 
Duke of Anjou and the princes of the blood to escape 
from Saint Germain, where the court resided, and 
where they were strictly, though secretly, watched. 
Having possessed themselves of some strong towns, 
and being supported by the Calvinists and the dis- 
contented Catholics, they intended to proclaim the 
Duke of Anjou lieutenant-general of the kingdom, 
and compel the Guises to give an account of their 
administration. These were the ostensible motives 
to insurrection; but Sully intimates that the real 
object was to secure the throne to the Duke of 
Anjou, Charles IX. being then dangerously ill, 
and the King of Poland being absent. 

Catharine had always evinced a marked partiality 
for her second son, and she now employed both cun- 
ning and force to secure him the succession. La 
Molle and Coconnas, partizans of the Duke of An- 
jou, and respectively the favourites of the Queen of 
Navarre and the Duchess of Nevers, were beheaded ; 
Marshals Montmorenci and De Cosse were arrested, 
and imprisoned in the Bastille; guards were ap- 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 139 

pointed to watch the movements of the Duke of 
Anjou and the King of Navarre ; the Prince of 
Conde fled to Germany. The Count of Mont- 
gommeri, the same who mortally wounded Henry 
II. in a tournament, was taken prisoner in Nor- 
mandy, brought to Paris, and beheaded by the 
vindictive Catharine, who had never pardoned 
him, though he was morally innocent of the death 
of her husband. 

Charles IX. was now about to descend to an 
early grave. Pie had not naturally a bad heart, 
but his passions were excessively violent. Evil 
example, wicked counsellors, a depraved mother, 
and a vicious education, made him the curse of 
his people and the opprobrium of humanity. His 
chief accomplishment, for which he was indebted 
to his profane associates, was a faculty of using 
oaths of a most indecent and impious character; 
and yet he ordered the massacre of Saint Bartholo- 
mew from zeal for religion. Such is the wayward 
infatuation of man ! This prince was not deficient 
in polite literature, in which he had been instructed 
by Amyot ; but the pestilential atmosphere of his 
bigoted court soon banished the lessons of mo- 
rality w^hich he had received from his preceptor, 
and he retained nothing but a perception of the 
beautiful in the style of the ancient authors. 

His last hours were embittered by that remorse 
which ever agonizes the conscience of the dying 
sinner. From the evening of the fatal 24th of 
August, he was observed to be gloomy and wretched, 
and was heard to groan involuntarily at the re- 
collection of the horrors he had perpetrated. His 



140 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 



physician, Ambrose Pare, though a Huguenot, pos- 
sessed a greater share of his confidence than any 
other person, and to him he freely disclosed the 
tortures of his soul. " Ambrose," said the king, 
" I know not what has happened to me during 
these two or three past days, but I feel my mind 
and body as much at enmity with each other as 
if I was seized with fever : sleeping or waking, 
the murdered Huguenots seem ever present to my 
eyes, with ghastly faces, and weltering in their blood. 
I wish the innocent and the helpless had been 
spared." ' It is pleasing to record these expressions 
of repentance, for it shows that humanity can never 
be wholly spoliated of her rights. 

The King of Navarre witnessed the death of 
Charles IX. The expiring monarch called his 
kinsman to the side of his bed, and recommended 
his wife and infant daughter to his protection : 
at that solemn hour he appreciated the noble mind 
and sterling integrity of a prince whom he had 
so bitterly outraged. He cautioned him to dis- 
trust ; but he whispered the name so 

faintly that no one heard it but the King of Na- 
varre. " My son, you should not speak thus," 
observed Catharine, who was present. " Why 
not?" replied Charles ; " it is perfectly true." 2 He 
expired on the 30th of May, 1574, bathed in his 
blood, which oozed out from every pore. Vol- 



1 Sully, torn. i. p. 43. 

2 In the notes to the Henriade it is said that Charles alluded 
to the King of Poland. Cayet makes Catharine the object of 
the allusion. 



REIGN OF CHARLES IX. 141 

taire thus finely describes his death in the third 
canto of the Henriade : — 

Dieu deployant sur lui sa vengeance severe 
Marqua ce roi mourant du sceau de sa colere. 
Je le vis expirant ; cette image effrayante 
A mes yeux attendris semble etre encore presente. 
Son sang, a gros bouillons de son corps 61anc6, 
Vengeait le sang Fran pais par ces ordres verse." 



142 



KEIGN OF HENRY III. 



Henry III. received intelligence of the death of his 
brother within fourteen days after his arrival in 
Poland. The austere behaviour of his new subjects 
had, even in that brief period, made him regret the 
licentious profligacy of Paris ; and his companions, 
young libertines from twenty to twenty-five years 
of age, disgusted with the restraints of virtue and 
decency, to which they had never been habituated, 
eagerly desired to return to France. The wishes of 
the master corresponded with those of the favourites ; 
but the king, fearing that the Poles might remon- 
strate against his departure, or even compel him to 
remain by force, stealthily fled from his palace on n 
dark night, and in less than two days reached the 
frontiers of the empire. He thus abandoned, as a 
fugitive, a crown he had obtained by intrigue and 
bribery. 

On his homeward journey he visited Venice, 
where he was received with princely honours by 
that proud republic, and the Doge strongly urged 
him to treat the Calvinists with justice and tender- 
ness. He loitered away his time in frivolous plea- 
sures while passing through the principal towns of 
Italy, and at the court of Turin he imbibed those per- 
nicious maxims which disorganized France, and ter- 
minated in his own assassination. He reached Paris 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 143 

in September, having quitted Poland in the middle 
of June. 

It was during this interval that Catharine, who 
exercised the full powers of regent, had put La 
Molle, Coconnas, and Montgommeri to death, im- 
prisoned the Marshals Montmorenci and De Cosse 
in the Bastille, and lodged the Duke of Anjou and 
the King of Navarre in the Bastille. Thus the 
king, on arriving in his capital, found the seeds of 
civil war again sown ; and amid the hireling shouts 
of gratulation which hailed his presence, he heard 
the suppressed murmurs of sedition and discontent. 
Had Henry possessed sufficient strength of mind to 
emancipate himself from the trammels of his artful 
mother, or that decision of character which promptly 
executes what has been maturely decided upon, he 
might have secured the peace of his subjects, and 
reigned with honour; but he had neither firmness 
nor foresight, and abandoned himself to parasites 
and flatterers, who disgraced the throne by their 
vices, and impoverished the people by their pro- 
digality and extortion. Henry, however, did im- 
mediately one act of mercy — he liberated his bro- 
ther, who again took his first title of Duke of Alen- 
9on, and the King of Navarre, from the Bastille ; 
but they remained under the surveillance of a secret 
guard. 

The civil wars which convulsed the reign of 
Charles IX. had produced a remarkable influence on 
the feelings and conduct of the nobility, while the 
massacre of Saint Bartholomew had operated most 
powerfully on the passions of the people. The 
courtiers, though still acknowledging the king as the 



144 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

supreme chief of the monarchy, did so rather from pre- 
cedent than loyalty ; the leading men, such as the 
Guises and Montmorencies, placed themselves at the 
head of the oligarchial sections, and their immediate 
dependents familiarly and habitually spoke of them as 
their masters : the homage due to the crown was 
thus silently transferred to individuals, and a species 
of Scottish clanship established even within the walls 
of the Louvre. The immediate results of this 
divided allegiance were constant quarrels, frequent 
duels, jealousies and hatreds, secret slanders, and the 
generation of all those disuniting influences which 
enervate the prime strength of a nation, by arraying 
the principal families and their partizans in hostile 
attitude against* each other. The lower apartments 
of the palace were crowded every morning with the 
rival courtiers, who passed their time in fencing, 
firing pistols, cutting blocks of wood with sabres, 
and inflaming their passions by recounting fictitious 
feats of arms, of which each speaker described him- 
self as the hero. 

The female character became vicious and de- 
praved : chastity was laughed at, and the matronly 
virtues were treated with scorn. All the rational prin- 
ciples of action were made to yield to the animal pas- 
sicms. To such a ridiculous height had devotion to 
the fair sex risen, that any gallant of the court, at the 
slightest intimation from his mistress, would plunge 
into a deep river, though unable to swim. The young 
men, under the same influence, would enter the 
woods to encounter wild boars and wolves, that 
they might exhibit the spoils, in proof of their fool- 
hardiness : nor did they hesitate to stab themselves 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 145 

with daggers, till they were covered with blood, and 
often so severely injured as to require surgical at- 
tendance. This obedience to the caprices of the la- 
dies, at once farcical and insane, was received as the 
proof of affection, and that affection met with an im- 
moral reward. 

The massacre of Saint Bartholomew had pro- 
duced a most fearful demoralizing influence on the 
common people. They had seen blood flow in tor- 
rents, the butchery of old and young, of mothers 
and infants ; they knew that the slaughter had been 
ordered by royal authority, and that the chief exe- 
cutioners included the first noblemen in the land. 
They had further been assured by the priests, that 
the murder of heretics was not only lawful in the 
eye of man, but acceptable in the sight of God; 
that it was even sinful to show them mercy, and that 
their extermination was the surest passport to sal- 
vation. The ignorant populace, infatuated with re- 
ligious frenzy, recognized no other law than 
the law of the strongest, and the arbiter of their 
disputes was the dagger or the bullet. Thus 
was fostered a ferocious and sanguinary character, 
which made the vulgar the willing instruments of 
their superiors, equally ready to peril their own lives 
or assail those of their neighbours. 

With so many elements of discord, and such an 
uncompromising spirit of rivalry among the cour- 
tiers, it was impossible that peace could be main- 
tained. The first insurrectionary movement in this 
reign was the confederation of Millaud, so called 
from a town in the Rouergue. The Prince of Conde, 
though absent in Germany collecting levies, with 



146 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 



which to commence a civil war, was the head of this 
association. The confederates bound themselves by 
oath to two distinct articles ; in the first place, the 
political malcontents covenanted not to lay down 
their arms till the Calvinists were secured in the 
full and free exercise of their religion. The Calvin- 
ists, on their part, pledged themselves neither to 
make peace nor truce till the Marshals Montmorenci 
and De Cosse were released from captivity. They 
further agreed to insist on a complete reform of the 
government, the punishment of all who had dis- 
turbed the public tranquillity, and the reduction of 
taxes. 

The confederates, having no recognized chief in 
the country, attempted to attach to their cause 
Damville, governor of Languedoc, second son of the 
late Constable Montmorenci. He was a man of 
mild and pacific temperament, but possessed of the 
most shrewd penetration : from kindness of heart he 
had never persecuted the Calvinists, though a sense 
of his own interest prevented him from showing 
them any open favour. Other provincial governors, 
especially Montluc, had cruelly punished the here- 
tics ; and the lukewarmness of Damville, compared 
with his zeal, had excited the suspicions of Catha- 
rine, who had frequently tried, though without suc- 
cess, to deprive him of his command. He was well 
aware of her secret machinations, which by consum- 
mate tact he had thwarted, and he would probably 
have continued to act on the defensive, had he not 
been roused to resistance by the imprisonment of his 
elder brother, for he clearly saw that this attack 
would be followed up, till the whole of his family 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 147 

were prostrate at the feet of tht Guises. In addition 
to these motives, Damville having fallen sick, sus- 
pected that he had been poisoned, and thus believing 
his own life to be in danger, he accepted the over- 
tures of the confederates, and signed the declaration 
of Millaud. 

The fifth civil war now broke out, and the inso- 
lence of the revolters knew no bounds. As a speci- 
men of their audacity, we cite the answer of Mont- 
brun, a gentleman of Picardy, to the king, w T hen 
called upon to surrender some Catholic prisoners, 
who had fallen into his power. " What \" said he, 
" does the king presume to write to me in the capa- 
city of king, as if I were bound to recognize him in 
that character ? I wish him to understand that that 
is all very well in time of peace; but in time of 
war, when the sword is in my hand, and my foot in 
the stirrup, all the world are equal, and I know no 
such superior/' 1 

The royal army marched against Livron, where 
Henry lost the laurels he had gained at Jarnac and 
Montcontour : the besieged loaded him with re- 
proaches, and he was literally hooted from the 
walls. The siege was raised almost as soon as 
commenced, and the retreat was most ignominious. 
The fact is, that the old officers, seeing themselves 
superseded in the confidence of his majesty by in- 
experienced youths, whose only title to preferment 
was their libertinism, showed no zeal for a service in 
which they were dishonoured ; and the Calvinists, 

1 Montbrun was shortly afterwards taken prisoner, tried, con- 
demned, and executed at Grenoble, on the charge of having plun- 
dered the royal carriages and servants. — Davila, p. 212. 

L 2 



148 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 



profiting by these dissensions, so strengthened their 
position as to set the whole power of the crown at 
defiance. 

At this juncture died the Cardinal of Lorraine, 
whose pernicious counsels and inordinate ambition 
had bathed France in blood. He possessed great 
talents, which he devoted to the aggrandizement of 
his family. He was the centre of a circle, and his 
relations bounded its circumference : no thoughts of 
national utility ever, even transiently, crossed his 
mind, or entered into the conceptions of his policy : 
he made use of religion as the ladder of his ambi- 
tion ; he embroiled the members of the royal family 
with each other, while he directed their concentrated 
fury against the best subjects of the monarchy. He 
was a priest without piety, and a statesman without 
honour ; a libertine by temperament, and a hypocrite 
by habit; avaricious, unfeeling, treacherous; con- 
cealing, under an engaging air of simulated can- 
dour, a black heart and a malignant and revengeful 
spirit. 

The death of the Cardinal of Lorraine was fol- 
lowed by the marriage of the king. In the month 
of February, 1575, the day after his coronation at 
Rheims, he espoused Louisa of Lorraine, daughter 
of Nicolas, Duke of Mercceur and Count of Vaude- 
mont. The historian Mathieu gives this princess 
great praise for her virtue and attachment to her 
husband, but she was always melancholy in 
the midst of splendour, having conceived an 
early affection for the brother of the Count of 
Salm, and the cankerworm of disappointed love 
blighted all her hopes of happiness. She may be 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 149 

added to the numerous victims of mercenary mar- 
riages. 

The wily Catharine, acting on her favourite maxim, 
" divide and govern," was now exerting herself to 
create disunion between the duke of Alencon and the 
King of Navarre, to each of whom she had secretly 
promised the high post of lieutenant-general of 
the kingdom. She suspected, and her suspicion was 
just, that these two princes had entered into some 
coalition, and her object was to convert their friend- 
ship into enmity. She was the more inclined to 
pursue this plan in consequence of the confederation 
of Ximes, which was an extension of the confedera- 
tion of Millaud, but more clearly defined in its pur- 
pose, and more powerfully organized in its means. 
The confederation of Nimes, in fact, established a 
separate and independent republic within the mo- 
narchy ; recognized chiefs were appointed, duties 
levied, and laws for the administration of justice 
framed ; while certain rules were enacted for the dis- 
cipline of the troops, the transactions of trade, and 
the exercise of the reformed religion. The several 
parties to this league mutually and reciprocally 
bound themselves not to open any negociations with 
the royal government, unless with the unanimous 
consent of all the confederates, and this clause they 
observed with rigid fidelity. 

"While these events were passing, the court was 
divided into factions, and many hoped to gain favour 
with the king by insulting his brother, who only 
waited an opportunity to take his revenge. Henry, 
on the other hand, who had lost all his early courage, 
desired to get rid of his enemies by assassination, 



150 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

and on hearing of a report that Damville had died 
in Languedoc, he gave orders to strangle Marshals 
Montmorenci and De Cosse in the Bastile ; and 
these murders would have been perpetrated had he 
not been persuaded to wait a few days, to ascertain 
if the rumour was founded in truth. However, the 
intention was soon publicly known, and roused the 
indignation of the numerous and powerful friends of 
the prisoners. 

The Duke of Alencon at last found an opportunity 
to escape from the court. He fled in disguise on 
the 17th of September, reached Dreux, and saw 
himself at the head of a formidable party. He was 
joined by the Prince of Conde, who had brought a 
considerable number of German auxiliaries into 
France; and the confederates, now having two 
princes of the blood as their chiefs, openly bearded 
the government. Other reinforcements were ad- 
vancing under Thore, brother of the Duke of Mont- 
morenci, who preceded the main army of Casimir, 
prince palatine; and Catharine was so alarmed lest 
these several forces should concentrate themselves, 
that she sent word to Thore, that unless he retreated, 
she would send him the head of his brother. He 
answered, " If the queen -mother dare to put her 
menace into execution, there is no part of France in 
which I will not leave marks of my vengeance." 
This firmness quite changed the tone of the court ; 
Montmorenci and De Cosse were liberated from 
the Bastile, and their mediation was requested to 
accommodate matters with the Duke of Alencon. 
In the meantime the Duke of Guise, who was gover- 
nor of Champagne, marched against the Germans 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 151 

under Thore, and signally defeated them at Langres. 
He received a severe wound in the cheek, the scar 
of which remained during his life, from which cir- 
cumstance he was popularly called the " Balafre." 

The court expected that this defeat would have 
disheartened the confederates ; but they continued 
firm, and the only concession they made was a truce 
for seven months, to commence on the 22d of No- 
vember, and terminate on the 25th of June. They 
also annexed advantageous conditions to this ar- 
rangement ; the king agreed to pay a considerable 
indemnification to Casimir, — to deliver to the Cal- 
vinists and malcontent Catholics six towns, to wit, 
Angouleme, Xiort, La Charite, Bourges, Saumur, 
and Mezieres, — to pay the garrisons placed in them 
by the Duke of Alencon and the Prince of Conde, — 
and to keep for the former a body-guard of Swiss, 
mounted gendarmes and arquebusiers. The only 
cover to this discreditable treaty between a king and 
his revolted subjects, was a clause that these towns 
should be given up at the end of the seven months, 
whether peace was continued or not ; but in either 
case the clause must have been known to be illu- 
sory ; for had peace been resolved upon, the con- 
federates would assuredly have retained them as 
guarantees against its infraction, and had war broken 
out again at the termination of the armistice, they 
would only have surrendered them by compulsion. 

The deputies of the confederates assembled in 
Paris, in January, 1576, and there opened nego- 
ciations with the royal commissioners. A dispute 
soon arose, for the governors of Angouleme and 
Bourges positively refused to deliver up those towns 



152 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

to the Calvinists ; and after some delay, they re- 
ceived in lieu of them Cognac and Saint Jean 
D'Angely, which were of much less importance. 
This violation of the articles of the truce was the 
pretext for continuing hostilities. Casimir and 
Conde entered Champagne in February, crossed 
Burgundy, and on the first of March effected their 
junction with the Duke of Alencon in the Bourbon- 
nais, when the latter was declared generalissimo of 
the confederates. The rebellion now assumed a 
formidable character, and the escape of the King of 
Navarre from the court rendered it still more alarm- 
ing. Catharine always evading the execution of her 
promise to appoint him lieutenant-general of the 
kingdom, Henry at length saw that he was the dupe 
of her artifices, and determined to assert his inde- 
pendence : he availed himself of a hunting-excur- 
sion to Senlis, to elude the vigilance of his guards, 
and joined the confederates, whose united forces, ac- 
cording to Sully, now amounted to fifty thousand 
men, but Davila reduces the number to thirty-five 
thousand. 

Though the Duke of Alencon and the King of 
Navarre had combined together against the crown, 
they were jealous of each other; both had aspired 
to the favours of the celebrated Madame De Sauve, 
and both had enjoyed them ; both had endeavoured 
to assume the chief military command of the nation, 
and both had failed; each now claimed absolute 
control over the confederates, and this personal 
rivalry disunited a force which otherwise might have 
dictated its own terms to the government. The 
King of Navarre openly professed himself a Pro- 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 153 

testant, declaring that his recantation after the mas- 
sacre of Saint Bartholomew had been extorted by 
force, and that he had always in his conscience been 
a Calvinist. This declaration at once gave him a 
complete ascendency over the Huguenots; and as he 
had the full support of the Prince of Conde, his 
cousin, the Duke of Alencon had sagacity enough 
to see that he could only play a secondary part in 
the political drama. This consideration induced him 
to listen favourably to the overtures of Catharine, 
who used every art to detach him from the coalition ; 
and this profligate woman succeeded in winning 
over her son, through the agency of the abandoned 
beauties of the court. Peace was resolved upon and 
ratified by a decree signed by the king, and dated 
the 14th of May, 1576. 

The concessions made to the confederates were 
extensive and advantageous. An amnesty for the 
past, — full liberty of conscience, — the free exer- 
cise of religion, without exceptions of times or 
places, — the pow T er of erecting schools or colleges, 
of convening synods, of performing marriage, and 
of administering the sacraments, were among the 
chief clauses of the treaty. All members of the re- 
formed religion were declared eligible to any office 
of state, and capable of enjoying any dignity or 
quality whatsoever, while the distinction and pre- 
cedency, formerly yielded to the Catholics, were 
abolished. Promises were made to establish a court 
of justice in every parliament, jointly and equally 
composed of Catholics and Protestants. The sen- 
tences against Coligny and Montgommeri were re- 
voked and declared null and void, and their de- 



154 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

scendants were reinstated in all their family honours. 
Berry, Touraine, and Anjou, three of the largest 
and most fertile provinces in France, with an annual 
pension of one hundred thousand crowns, were 
awarded to the Duke of Alenc,on, as his apanage. 
The Prince of Conde received the government of 
Picardy with the city of Peronne. The principality 
of Chateau-Thierry w^as allotted to Casimir, with a 
pension of fourteen thousand crowns, and the pay- 
ment of all the arrears due to the German army 
was promised, amounting to twelve millions of du- 
cats. 

The confederates committed an unpardonable 
error in signing this treaty, for the least shrewd 
among them must have been certain that conces- 
sions so ample would never be executed. Davila 
openly confesses that the court never intended to 
fulfil their engagements ; that all they aimed at was 
the return of the army of Casimir to Germany, and 
the withdrawal of the Duke of Alencon from the 
coalition. Sully, speaking of Catharine, observes, 
" She offered more than we thought we could de- 
mand ; promises cost that artful princess nothing : 
thus all things fell out as she wished, for, in making 
this peace, she had nothing in view but the dis- 
union of her enemies." Catharine had also calcu- 
lated on the resistance which the Roman Catholic 
party would make to the treaty, when its terms 
were made known ; nor was she disappointed in it ; 
for it was denounced by the whole party with rage 
and indignation. That it was impious and unlawful 
to keep good faith with heretics, had long been 
preached as a popular doctrine ; and now that money 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 155 

was to be paid, towns surrendered, and equality of 
civil rights established, none scrupled to declare the 
articles of pacification null and void. Not one of 
them was executed. 

Two years had only elapsed since the accession of 
Henry III., and he was loaded with dishonour. 
The Polish diet had expelled him from the throne of 
their country with the most degrading marks of 
infamy, and he now slumbered on the throne of 
France, while its foundations were crumbling into 
dust. He was hated by the Calvinists for his 
breaches of faith ; he was despised by the Catholics 
for his imbecility. The substance of royalty had 
departed from him, and nothing but the shadow re- 
mained. Openly bearded by the Huguenots, wiiile 
the Guises secretly conspired against his authority 
and even his personal liberty, this miserable de- 
scendant of the house of Yalois saw none but ene- 
mies abroad and traitors at home. His only friends, 
if friendship can be applied to such characters, were 
young libertines, the companions of his profligacies, 
whose extravagances and constant demands for mo- 
ney put the seal to his unpopularity. 1 As the 
Catholics placed no confidence in the king, they 
determined to form a confederacy for their own pro- 

1 Such was the contempt into which the king had fallen, 
that the following placard was posted on the walls of the Lou- 
vre : " Henri, par la grace de sa mere, inutile roi de France et 
de Pologne, imaginaire concierge du Louvre, marguillier de 
Saint-Crermain-rAuxerrois, bateleur des eglises de Paris, gendre 
de Colas, goudronneur des collets de sa femme et friseur de ses 
cheveux, mercier du palais, visiteur d'estuves, gardien des qua- 
tre mendians, pere conscript des blancs battus, et protecteur des 
capucins." 



156 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

tection, and this celebrated association is known in 
the history of the religious wars of France, as the 
League. It originated in Picardy with James, 
Lord of Humieres, governor of Peronne, Montdi- 
dier, and Roye, a gentleman of great wealth and 
influence, who had private causes of quarrel against 
the Montmorencies, on various accounts, and was 
now animated with fury against the Prince of 
Conde, to whom Peronne had been allotted by one 
of the articles of the recent treaty. His example 
soon spread throughout the whole of Picardy, and 
was quickly imitated in other provinces. Henry, 
Duke of Guise, was the recognized chief of this as- 
sociation, which, under the pretext of religion, be- 
came a political engine to promote the ambitious 
views of the princes of Lorraine. 

The covenant of the league was drawn up in the 
following terms : — 

" In the name of the most Holy Trinity, Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost, our only true God, to whom 
be glory and honour. The covenant of the princes, 
lords, and gentlemen of the Catholic religion ought 
to be made ; and it is hereby made, to establish the 
law of God in its purity, and to restore and settle 
his holy service according to the form and manner 
of the Catholic Apostolic Roman Church, abjuring 
and renouncing all errors contrary to it. 

" Secondly, it is made to preserve to King Henry, 
the third of that name, and his successors the most 
Christian kings, the state, honour, authority, duty, 
service, and obedience, owed by his and their subjects, 
as the same are contained in those articles which 
shall be presented to him in the assembly of the states, 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 157 

and which he swore and promised to observe at the 
time of his consecration and coronation, with a solemn 
protestation not to do any act against what shall be 
ordained and settled by the states. 

" Thirdly, to restore nnto the provinces of this 
kingdom, and to those other states which are under 
it, those ancient rights, pre-eminences, liberties, and 
privileges which existed in the time of Clovis, the 
first most Christian king, or others better and more 
profitable, (if any such can be found,) under the 
same protection. 

" In case there be any impediment, opposition, or 
rebellion against what has been premised, be it from 
whom it will, or proceed from ichencesoever it may, 
those who enter into this covenant shall be bound 
and obliged to employ their lives and fortunes to 
punish, chastise, and prosecute those who may at- 
tempt to disturb it, or prevent its execution, and 
shall never cease their endeavours till the aforesaid 
things be done and perfected. 

" In case any of the confederates, their friends, 
vassals, or dependents be oppressed, molested, or 
questioned for this cause, be it by whom it will, 
they shall be bound to employ their persons, goods, 
and estates to take revenge upon those who shall 
have so molested them, either by the way of justice 
or force, without any exception of persons whatso- 
ever. 

"If it shall come to pass that any man, after 
uniting himself by oath to this confederacy, should 
desire to depart from it, or separate himself on any 
excuse or pretence, (which God forbid,) such viola- 
tors of their own consciences shall be punished, both 
in their bodies and goods, by all means that can be 



158 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

thought of, as enemies of God, and rebels and dis- 
turbers of the public peace ; nor shall the aforesaid 
associates be liable to be questioned for any punish- 
ment they may inflict, either in public or private. 

" The said associates shall likewise swear to yield 
ready obedience and faithful service unto that Head 
who shall be appointed; to follow and obey him, 
and to lend all help, counsel, and assistance, as well 
for the entire conservation and maintenance of this 
league, as for the ruin of all who may oppose it, 
without partiality or exception of persons ; and those 
who shall fail or depart from it, shall be punished 
by the authority of the Head, and according to his 
orders ; to which every confederate shall be obliged 
to submit himself. 

" All the Catholics of the several cities, towns, and 
villages shall be secretly advertised and warned by 
the particular governors of places to enter into this 
league, and concur in the providing of men, arms, 
and other necessaries, every one according to his 
condition and ability. 

" All the confederates shall be prohibited from 
stirring up any discord, or entering into any dispute 
among themselves, without leave of the Head, to 
whose arbitrament all dissensions shall be referred, 
as also the settlement of all differences, as well in 
matters of goods as of good name ; and all of them 
shall be obliged to swear in the manner and form 
following : — 

" I swear by God the Creator, (laying my hand on 
the holy gospel,) and under pain of excommunica- 
tion and eternal damnation, that I enter into this 
holy Catholic league according to the form of that 
writing which has now been read unto me, and that 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 159 

I do faithfully and sincerely enter into it with a 
will either to command or obey, as I shall be di- 
rected : and I promise, on my life and honour, to 
continue in it to the last drop of my blood, and not to 
depart from it, or transgress it for any command, 
pretence, excuse, or occasion which by any means 
whatsoever may be represented to me." l 

The terms in which this instrument was drawn up, 
abundantly prove that the intention of the league 
was to depose the king and transfer all the regal 
authority to the Head whom they might appoint. 
The allusion to the liberties and privileges which 
existed in the time of Clovis, was intended to give, 
as occasion offered, very considerable latitude to the 
leaguers, as it clearlv enabled them to extend their 
views from religious to political objects. It more- 
over gave a colourable pretence to the intended 
usurpation of the Duke of Guise, who was declared 
by the genealogists to be a descendant of Charle- 
magne, and. in his person the ancient line of royalty 
was to be restored. The clause which bound the 
leaguers to pay implicit obedience to the chief ap- 
pointed by the confederates, at once set aside the 
authority of the king and reduced him to a cipher ; 
and as the chief elected was also to decide on all 
disputes, whether relating to property or character, 
he became invested with all the judicial functions of 
the state. 

This conspiracy had been carried on with great 
circumspection, but Henry was not ignorant of its 
existence; and though unacquainted with the de- 
tails and extent of the plot, he was aware that his 
1 Davila, p. 223. 



160 REIGN OF HENRY III, 

personal honour and dignity were menaced with at- 
tack. It was under these circumstances that the 
first States of Blois were held on the 6th of De- 
cember, 1576. The king comported himself with 
dignity on the occasion, for though habitually prone 
to frivolity, he could assume at pleasure a majestic 
mien and a commanding air. He pronounced an 
impressive speech with considerable feeling and 
energy, lamenting the discord of the country, the 
dilapidated state of the finances, and the general 
calamities of the kingdom. He dwelt strongly on 
the great exertions made by the queen-mother, 
during the minority of Charles IX., to reconcile 
conflicting interests, and maintain the efficiency of 
the government, — deprecated the policy of putting 
down the Calvinists by the sword, which had been 
so often tried without success, and concluded by an 
affectionate appeal to all parties to make mutual 
concessions, and unite together for the conservation 
of the monarchy. The chancellor Birague re- 
echoed the sentiments of the king, and the three 
orders severally returned thanks to his majesty for his 
condescension, and the anxiety he had expressed for 
the welfare of his subjects; but these compliments 
were mere formalities, hollow, insidious, and insincere. 
The Duke of Guise was not present at Blois, 
but the assembly was composed of men entirely 
devoted to his interests, and, though absent, he 
ruled. Had it been proposed to qualify the ar- 
ticles of the last peace, the king would have 
yielded his assent, but the demands of the 
leaguers were more extensive; for they insisted, 
after a short discussion, that there should be only 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 161 

one religion, which was tantamount to a declaration 
of war against the Huguenots. Against this ex- 
treme resolution the king protested, on which it was 
proposed to nominate a council composed of judges, 
not suspected by the states, and twelve of the depu- 
ties, empowering them to adopt such measures as 
they might deem expedient, without the possibility 
of their being revoked by any other tribunal. The 
king had the firmness to resist this crafty proposi- 
tion, which, had it been accepted, would have effec^ 
tually despoiled him of his prerogative and made 
him the puppet of a faction. 

The position of Henry was most embarrassing. 
He felt himself too feeble to resist the insolence of 
the league, and to yield was to abandon the throne. 
From this dilemma he hoped to extricate himself by 
a manoeuvre which met with temporary success, 
but substantially only gave him the benefit of a de- 
lay. He proposed to the States to send deputies to 
the King of Navarre, the Prince of Conde, and the 
Marshal of D'Amville, admonishing them to dis- 
band their troops, and submit themselves to the 
wisdom and justice of the national representatives. 
This proposal was too gracious and reasonable to 
be rejected, and commissioners were appointed. 
The King of Navarre received them kindly, but 
protested against any force being put on his con- 
science, declaring his firm belief in the reformed 
creed, yet offering to abandon it, whenever his rea- 
son convinced him of being in error. He, however, 
refused to disarm his adherents, saying, that as 
he knew the league were prepared to attack him, 
he would stand on the defensive. The Prince of 



162 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

Conde, of a more fiery temper than his cousin, 
treated the deputies with marked contempt, refused 
to open their letters, denied the constitutional con- 
struction of the States of Blois, branded them as 
corrupt and suborned disturbers of the public peace, 
and bade them a stern defiance. The answer of 
Marshal D'Amville, though couched in mild terms, 
was equally hostile and uncompromising. He de- 
clared himself as true a Catholic as any of the 
leaguers, stating that he had been brought up and 
would die in the faith of the church of Rome, but 
experience had taught him that Calvinism could not 
be extirpated by violence, and that the effusion of 
blood was opposed to pure religion. He denounced 
the States of Blois, as a prejudiced assembly, com- 
posed only of the deputies of one party. 

The king, having thus failed in his pacific over- 
tures, was compelled either to declare himself head 
of the league, or see that formidable power vested 
in the Duke of Guise. He accepted the least dan- 
gerous alternative, and from that hour was rather 
the chief of a faction than the sovereign of France. 
The most zealous of the Catholics now insisted on 
exterminating the Calvinists by force, and urged the 
king to declare war against them without delay. 
" I consent," said Henry ; " but you must first pro- 
vide money." This demand cooled the ardour of 
the most impetuous, and Jean Bodin, president of 
the order of Commons (tiers-etat) protested vehe- 
mently against any tax, as the nation was already 
reduced to the most impoverished condition, The 
nobility and the clergy acquiesced in these views, 
and the first States of Blois were dissolved without 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 163 

having adjusted any of the disputes which they had 
been convened to settle. 

The storm which had menaced the king was now 
for a moment averted, and he availed himself of the 
temporary calm to dismiss from the council those 
whom he suspected of attachment to the Princes of 
Lorraine. His next measure was to raise two ar- 
mies ; he gave the command of one to the Duke of 
Alencon, and the second he entrusted to the Duke 
of Mayenne, brother to the Duke of Guise, but a 
man of less dangerous ambition. A naval squadron 
was also equipped to cruise off Rochelle, to intercept 
supplies from England. Biron and Yilleroi were 
deputed to hold a conference with the King of Xa- 
varre, and they were accompanied by Catharine of 
Xavarre, who was bribed to win over her brother by 
a promise of marriage with the Duke of Alencon, if 
she succeeded. Other negociators were dispatched 
to Languedoc, where D'Amville, chief of the politi- 
cal malcontents, commanded, and he was soon per- 
suaded to submit to the royal authority. The 
Prince of Conde, after sustaining several defeats, 
and being straitened through want of funds, ac- 
cepted terms of peace, and his example was fol- 
lowed by the King of Navarre. This pacification 
was effected in September, 1 577? an( i ratified by the 
edict of Poitiers. 

It was stipulated that the Roman Catholic re- 
ligion should be dominant, and that Calvinism 
should be subsidiary to it in a national and political 
point of view. The public profession and exercise 
of the reformed doctrines were granted, and with 
greater liberty than at any antecedent period. The 

m 2 



164 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

Huguenots were confirmed in all the privileges of 
citizenship, and declared capable of holding any civil 
appointment ; their recent rebellion was even ad- 
mitted to be not only justifiable but useful to the 
state ; but they were ordered to pay tithes, to re- 
store the church-property they had seized, to ob- 
serve the holy days of the church externally, and 
abstain from all acts insulting to the Roman 
Catholic form of worship. Eight places of security 
were granted to the Calvinists, on condition that 
they would restore them to the king at the end of 
four years : these w T ere Montpellier and Aiguemorte, 
in Languedoc ; Myon and Serres, in Dauphiny ; 
Seine, in Provence ; Perigueux, Reolle, and Le Mas 
de Verdun, in Guienne. 1 

Had the edict of Poitiers been faithfully executed, 
peace might have been established on a solid basis, 
but the fierce bigotry of the more intolerant Catho- 
lics looked with jealousy and hatred on every conces- 
sion to the liberty of conscience and the right of 
private judgment. The private life of the king ex- 
posed him to the scorn and ridicule of his subjects, 
and gradually undermined all his moral influence. 
He devoted a great part of his time to conversations 
with Capuchin friars and Jesuits, underwent ridicu- 
lous penances, wore a horse-hair shirt next to his 
skin, frequented the schools of the Penitents and 
Hieronomites, and hung his beads openly at his gir- 
dle. His conduct within the precincts of the palace 
belied all these outward and ostentatious pretensions 
to piety. Surrounded by young favourites of the 
most immoral character, he indulged in vices too 
■ Davila. t>. 235. 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 165 

shocking to be here narrated, but which are detailed 
with painful accuracy in the memoirs and biogra- 
phies of contemporary writers. His prodigal muni- 
ficence to these unworthy parasites drained the ex- 
chequer, and enormous taxes, wrung from an impo- 
verished people, estranged the affections of even the 
most loyal. 

Elizabeth of England was well aware of the or- 
ganization of the league, and dreaded the ascen- 
dency of the Duke of Guise, who had strengthened 
himself and his party by a secret and treasonable al- 
liance with the King of Spain. An open rupture 
with France did not suit her policy, but she endea- 
voured to neutralize the advantages which the Catho- 
lics of that country might derive from Philip, by aid- 
ing the Protestants of the Low Countries. The Duke 
of Alencon, eager to obtain an independent sove- 
reignty, had directed his ambitious views to the 
Dutch provinces, and Elizabeth, wishing to use him 
as an instrument to cripple the influence of Spain, 
had encouraged overtures of marriage made to her 
by this young prince, which she never intended se- 
riously to accept. The queen-mother, flattered by 
the hope of placing her son on the throne of England, 1 
urged Henry III. to aid his brother with the 
full resources of the government, and realize the plans 

1 Catharine, before the Duke of Anjou had been offered the 
crown of Poland, had resolved to obtain an independent sove- 
reignty for her youngest son. She had sent Francis de Noailles 
to Sultan Selim, to ask the kingdom of Algiers for that prince. 
Sardinia was to have been added to it, in exchange for Navarre, 
which the queen-mother had stipulated to transfer to Spain, and 
as an equivalent for the cession of his patrimonial dominions, 
the King of Navarre was to have been indemnified by territories 
in Fiance. — De Thou, 



166 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

devised by Admiral Coligny. The Calvinists of 
France, the political malcontents, and great numbers 
of the young nobility, emulous of military glory, 
promised to follow his banner as soon as it was dis- 
played ; and many of the leading men in the Low 
Countries, jealous of the Prince of Orange, were well 
disj^osed to receive a foreign sovereign* It was the 
interest of Henry the Third to have supported the 
Duke of Alencon; and he would have been justified 
in attacking an enemy who had fomented civil discord 
within his own realm, and armed the league against 
the crown ; but the king was incapable of vigorous 
action, and threw away the golden opportunity 
which presented itself. 

It is probable that some feeling of jealousy swayed 
his conduct, and that he was unwilling to aid his 
brother in an enterprise from which there was every 
probability of his reaping glory and power ; but the 
project failed, principally through the intrigues of 
the abandoned courtiers, by whom the king was sur- 
rounded. The Duke of Alencon rarely frequented 
the royal parties, where he was not only deprived of 
the rank to which his birth entitled him, but treated 
with mockery and derision. These insults he did 
not dare openly to resent, from fear of incurring the 
displeasure of his brother, without whose aid his 
prospective sovereignty of the Low Countries would 
have been hopeless ; but, stung with resentment, he 
resolved not to expose himself to a repetition of 
affront, and retired from the festivals of the Louvre. 
The minions persuaded the king that this absence 
was only the prelude to a second junction with the 
Calvinists and malcontents, and that a new con- 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 167 

spiracy was hatching. Henry, credulous and rash, 
seized his brother and several of his favourites, and 
incarcerated them in the Bastile : on the following 
day he reflected on the injustice and precipitancy of 
his conduct, and the prisoners were released ; but 
the contumely was not forgotten. 

The duke quitted Paris and repaired to Alenc^on, 
whence he wrote to the kino* stating that he had ab- 
sented himself simply to mature his plans for carry- 
ing into effect his enterprise in the Low Countries, 
and he pledged his honour not to do any act dis- 
pleasing to his majesty, and he kept his word. 
During his retreat the court minions quarrelled among 
each other ; frequent duels took place, and in a few 
months the most insolent and overbearing were slain. 
Thus relieved from the presence of those most ob- 
noxious to him, the Duke of Alenc^on returned to 
the Louvre, and the two brothers were again recon- 
ciled. 

While these events were passing the queen-mo- 
ther, accompanied by her daughter Margaret, Queen 
of Navarre, travelled through Guienne, Languedoc, 
and Dauphiny. These provinces were in a complete 
state of insubordination. The governors obeyed or 
disobeyed the orders of the court, as it suited their 
own interest or caprice, and the commandants of 
towns treated the provincial governors with similar 
disrespect. The people disdained the restraint of 
legal authority, and if force were menaced, the Ca- 
tholic at once vowed that he would make common 
cause with the Calvinists, and the Calvinists threat- 
ened to join the royal party. It was one of the 
great objects of Catharine to put an end to these 



168 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

abuses, for which purpose she repaired to Nerac, 
capital of the duchy of Albret, where the King of 
Navarre resided. She then extended the conditions 
of the treaty of Poitiers, by allowing the Huguenots 
to build chapels and raise funds for the support of 
their ministers. Moreover, she gave the reformers 
fourteen towns for their security, instead of eight, 
as originally stipulated. It was hoped that these 
concessions would have ensured tranquillity, but the 
expectation was disappointed. 

The little court of the King of Navarre now pre- 
sented a continued scene of gallantry, pleasure, and 
festivals ; and his queen was the life and soul of this 
voluptuous society. She had always shown a 
marked preference for her brother, the Duke of Alen- 
9on, on which account she was disliked by Henry 
III. He dreaded her influence, and was deeply 
alarmed lest she might attach the Calvinist leaders 
to the duke's interest. Impressed with this feeling, 
he resolved upon her ruin, and wrote to the King of 
Navarre, that his wife was carrying on an intrigue 
with the Viscount of Turenne. Bourbon showed 
the letter to the parties inculpated, both of whom 
protested their innocence, and vowed vengeance 
against their accuser. The indignation of Margaret 
knew no bounds : she pointed out to her husband 
the perfidy of her brother, who had not put him 
into possession of Cahors, a city promised as part of 
her dowry, and declared her conviction that he had 
invented the calumny against herself to embroil him 
with Turenne and the friends of that powerful 
baron. She concluded by exhorting him seize 
Cahors by force, as his just right, and the most 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 169 

effective mode of avenging the dishonour cast upon 
her virtue. She inspired the ladies of the court with 
the same fury that animated her own excited pas- 
sions, and they kindled the warlike spirit of all the 
young nobility. Banquetting and festivities ceased ; 
all prepared for battle. This seventh war, which 
broke out in 1780, was called " The War of Lovers," 
— a title inappropriate, for it originated in an insult 
offered by a brother to a sister, — in a libel pro- 
nounced by the King of France on the Queen of 
Navarre. 

The Duke of Alencon received early intelligence 
of the intended hostilities from his sister, Margaret ; 
he encouraged the enterprise, guaranteed its success, 
and praised it as the best means of securing a solid 
and permanent peace. A political convulsion suited 
his policy. Since his return to the court, he had 
vainly urged the king to afford him the supplies ne- 
cessary to appear with dignity in the Low Countries ; 
for the indolent monarch, having pacified his sub- 
jects, feared to embroil himself with Spain, and 
therefore refused to carry on the proposed war in 
Flanders. The Duke of Alencon hoped that if ano- 
ther civil war could be fomented, Henry would make 
any sacrifice for peace ; and as he expected to arbi- 
trate at pleasure between the two parties, he thought 
he could thus compel the king to aid him in his 
ambitious projects, by inducing the Calvinists to lay 
down their arms. With these views he urged the 
King of Navarre forthwith to commence hostilities, 
pledging himself to give the insurgents the full 
weight of his influence. The advice of the Duke 
of Alencon prevailed, and the Calvinists opened 



170 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

the campaign in the summer of 1580, by an attack 
on Cahors. 

The city of Cahors is seated on the river Lot, 
which, environing it on three sides, leaves only one 
passage free, called La Porte Aux Barres : three 
bridges cross the river; by one of these, called the 
New Bridge, the King of Navarre resolved to assault 
the place secretly in the night. The garrison con- 
sisted of two thousand soldiers and one hundred 
horse, commanded by Vesins, who had compelled 
the citizens to take up arms. Bourbon was only 
able to muster fifteen hundred men, with whom he 
marched from Montauban. A petard, an engine not 
much in use, was attached to the gate of the bridge, 
and when it exploded, the entrance was free ; but 
the resistance was as determined as the attack was 
desperate. During five days and five nights victory 
was doubtful ; every inch of ground was vigorously 
disputed ; each street was a battle-field ; reinforce- 
ments were hastening to support the besieged ; the 
Calvinists wished to retreat, but the king refused. 
" It is Heaven," said he, " which dictates what I 
ought to do upon this occasion : remember, that my 
retreat oat of this city shall be the retreat of my 
soul out of my body ; speak, therefore, to me of no- 
thing but fighting ; conquest or death." * Animated 
by these words, his troops made fresh exertions, 
and the arrival of Chouppes, one of the lieutenants 
of Bourbon, with six hundred foot, and one hundred 
horse, decided this obstinate battle in favour of the 
Calvinists. 

1 Sully, torn. i. p. 80. 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 171 

This success was followed by others, small indeed 
of themselves, but sufficient, in the heated state of 
the times, to alarm the Catholics and encourage the 
Huguenots. It became necessary for the king to 
act, but he had no wish to effect a complete conquest 
of Bourbon, whose talents and influence counter- 
balanced those of Guise, whom he regarded with 
just suspicion, as the traitorous chief of the league. 
On the other hand, both inclination and duty 
prompted him to check the armed resistance of the 
Calvinists, and for that purpose three armies were 
ordered to take the field. Marshal de Matignon 
commanded that of Picardy, with which he took La 
Fere, recently captured by the Prince of Conde ; 
Marshal Biron marched into Guienne against the 
King of Navarre, but without any intention of 
molesting him ; the Duke of Mayenne entered 
Dauphiny, and soon reduced the inhabitants to 
obedience. In the mean time, the Duke of Alencon 
had returned from England, where he had met a 
flattering reception from Elizabeth, for though that 
politic princess had not given him any positive pledge 
of marriage, he felt sure of her supporting his views 
on the Low Countries. He now interposed between 
Valois and Bourbon. The latter was put into pos- 
session of his wife's dowry, and the seventh peace 
was concluded. 

On the 23rd of January, 1579, the republic of the 
United Provinces of Holland was founded, and the 
Prince of Orange declared its chief, with the name 
or title of Stadtholder. Two foreign princes com- 
peted for the sovereignty of these countries. The first 
was Mathias, Archduke of Austria, son of the em- 



172 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

peror Maximilian II. The nobles of Brabant, 
jealous of the Prince of Orange, had given Mathias 
the government of their provinces, but his authority 
was of short duration. The second competitor was 
the Duke of Alenc,on, who was proclaimed Duke of 
Brabant and Earl of Flanders. He succeeded in 
levying an army in France in 1581, and his first 
military exploit was the relief of Cambray, which 
he at first succoured and then reduced under his 
power. Ambitious, but wanting talent, he would 
not content himself with the constitutional sove- 
reignty confided to him by the States, but desired 
despotically to rule a people who of their own free 
will had offered him a crown. He banished all 
Protestants from his council, and reposed his confi- 
dence exclusively in Catholics. Having assembled 
his army, he entered Antwerp, as rudely as though 
he had taken it by assault, the soldiers shouting, 
" Kill, kill ! the city is ours : the mass for ever !" 
But the Prince of Orange, who had suspected his 
treachery, was prepared for resistance, and the French 
were repulsed with slaughter. Five thousand of the 
French army and as many horses perished by cold 
and hunger before Mechlin. After a short residence 
in the United Provinces, the Duke of Alencon re- 
turned to France, detested by the Dutch, and de- 
spised by his own countrymen. He died in June, 
1584, at Chateau-Thierry, a castle on his apanage^ 
and his demise opened a vast field to those who 
were fomenting civil war, and were already pre- 
pared to carry their schemes into execution. 

It has already been stated that when the States 
of Blois were convened in 1577? the king, instead of 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 173 

openly defying and crushing the league, had de- 
clared himself its chief ; and had he made use of his 
influence secretly to undermine this confederacy, he 
would probably have succeeded in the attempt. 
But this feeble monarch never looked beyond the 
present hour ; he was satisfied with averting press- 
ing evils ; and when the danger was passed, he acted 
as though a similar crisis could never return. By 
this indolent indifference he permitted, even under 
the sanction of his own name, a faction to organize 
itself, which meditated his dethronement. A single 
trait suffices to distinguish the characters of Henry, 
King of France, and Henry, Duke of Guise. The 
former was at the head of affairs, by virtue of his 
rank alone ; the latter had no title but personal merit, 
yet he really presided over the nation, and moved 
all the springs in the machinery of government. 

The death of the Duke of Alencon served as a 
pretext to call the league into full and open action. 
The king had been married ten years, but he was 
childless ; and though both himself and consort were 
still in the flower of age, the emissaries of Guise de- 
clared that there was no possibility of issue, on ac- 
count of the impotency of the sovereign. There 
was no evidence to support this report, but it was 
readily credited by the Catholics; the priests 
vouched for its truth from the pulpit. It became 
therefore necessary to settle the succession to the 
throne. In the reigning monarch the house of 
Valois became extinct, and by hereditary right, 
Henry of Navarre, of the line of Bourbon, was next 
heir to the crown. But he was a Protestant. Under 
these circumstances the league appealed to the 
bigoted and intolerant passions of the people 



174 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

affirming that the accession of a Huguenot mo- 
narch would be accompanied by the total overthrow 
of pure religion. 

The Duke of Guise, who thoroughly understood 
the French character, was well aware that no party 
could long retain influence over the masses, unless 
their chief was a prince of the blood. He, therefore, 
selected Charles, Cardinal of Bourbon, third brother 
of Antony, late King of Navarre, and of the de- 
ceased Prince of Conde, as successor to the throne. 
He promised to obtain for him a papal dispensation, 
and marry him to Catharine of Lorraine, widow of 
the Duke of Montpensier, a princess who afterwards 
manifested the most implacable hatred to Henry 
III. : the cardinal lent a ready ear to these pro- 
posals. To use the language of Davila, the cardi- 
nal was compared "to a camel, that kneels down 
before its enemies to take up a load, which may en- 
danger the breaking of his own back/' But if we 
are to credit Cayet, the cardinal merely dissimulated 
to deceive the Duke of Guise, for when urged by 
one of his faithful friends to abandon the party of 
the Lorraine princes, he is said to have made this 
answer : " I have not accepted their proposals with- 
out due reflection : think you that I do not clearly 
perceive that their object is to ruin the house of Bour- 
bon ? So long as I remain with them it is at least a 
Bourbon who will be recognized; nevertheless, my 
nephew, the King of Navarre, will make his fortune. 
The king and queen know my motives and my 
intention." 

The Duke of Guise conciliated Catharine, the 
queen-mother, to his interests, by stating that he 
wished to exclude the chief of the Bourbons, that he 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 175 

might vest the throne in the persons of her grand- 
children, the offspring of the Duke of Lorraine and 
Claude of France, her daughter. The nobility were 
won over from hatred to the court minions, who 
monopolized all the royal favour, and dispensed the 
whole patronage of the government ; they hoped to 
succeed to these advantages under a change of 
dynasty. The clergy supported Guise, because he 
engaged to put down by the sword all sectarianism ; 
the credulous multitude were promised a dhninution 
of taxes. 

The league were now numerically strong ; their 
chiefs were of noble birth and military reputation ; 
but they wanted money. To procure this indispen- 
sable instrument of war, Guise negociated with 
Spain, and it suited the policy as well as pleased 
the bigotry of Philip II. to grant him his alliance. 
So long as France was convulsed with civil war, she 
could not render any aid to the revolted Protestants 
of the Low Countries ; moreover, if the chief of the 
Bourbons became King of France, Philip foresaw 
that he would endeavour to recover his hereditary 
kingdom of Xavarre in its full integrity. These con- 
siderations would alone have determined the court 
of Madrid ; the personal hatred which the king bore 
to the doctrines of Calvin was superadded. On 
the 2nd of January, 1585, the contract of alliance 
was signed at Jainville, on the confines of Picardy 
and Champagne, in a castle belonging to the Duke 
of Guise. 

This treaty stipulated, that in case the King of 
France should die without an heir male lawfully be- 
gotten, then the Cardinal of Bourbon should be de- 



176 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

clared king, as true heir to the throne, excluding 
from the succession all who, being heretics, or fol- 
lowers or favourers of heretics, had rendered them- 
selves incapable of the inheritance ; that during the 
life of the king, (in order to prevent the heretics 
making any preparation to seize the throne at his 
death,) the confederate princes should raise armies, 
make war on the Huguenots, and do all other acts 
expedient or necessary ; that the Cardinal of Bour- 
bon, on coming to the throne, should ratify the peace 
already concluded at Cambresis between France and 
Spain, and observe it punctually, prohibiting any 
other religion in the country but the Roman Catho- 
lic, exterminating all heretics by force, till the whole 
were utterly destroyed, and establish the decrees and 
constitutions of the council of Trent ; that the car- 
dinal should promise for himself, his heirs and suc- 
cessors, to renounce all friendship or confederacy 
with the Ottoman Porte, and not consent to any 
thing which the sultan might devise in any place 
against the common weal of Christians ; that he 
should forbid all piracy, whereby the subjects of the 
crown of France disturbed the traffic and navigation 
of the Spaniards to the Indies ; that he should re- 
store to the Catholic king all that had been taken 
from him by the Huguenots, and specially the city 
and jurisdiction of Cambray; and further, that he 
should assist him with suitable forces to recover 
such towns and territories as had been taken from 
him in the Low Countries. On the other hand, it 
was stipulated that Philip should be bound to con- 
tribute fifty thousand crowns effectively every month, 
towards the maintenance of the league ; that he 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 177 

should assist them with the number of men that 
mio-ht be thought necessary, as well during the life 
of the reigning monarch, as after his death, for the 
extirpation of heresy ; that he should receh T e into 
his protection the Cardinal of Bourbon, the Lords of 
Guise, the Dukes of Mercceur and Nevers, and all 
those other lords and gentlemen who should sub- 
scribe to the league, promising to assist them against 
the Huguenots and their adherents, so that they 
should be kept safe and harmless ; that no treaty or 
agreement whatever should be made with the King 
of France, without the mutual consent of both par- 
ties, and that the articles of this union should be 
kept secret for many reasons, till a more fitting op- 
portunity arrived for their publication. * Such was 
the substance of the treaty made with the King of 
Spain, who, in addition to the conditions enumerated, 
stipulated secretly with the Duke of Guise to pay 
him two hundred thousand crowns annually for his 
own use, on the understanding that he would expend 
them in promoting the interest of the league. 

There now only remained the sanction of Rome to 
consolidate the confederacy, and inspire all its mem- 
bers with confidence ; for some among them, particu- 
larly the Duke of Nevers, though favourable to its 
principles, shrank from open rebellion against the 
sacred person of the king, unless they had the written 
permission of the pope. The Jesuit Mathieu, called 
the courier of the league , from his frequent journeys 
to Rome, vainly solicited the sanction of the pontiff, 
who reprobated the possible murder of Henry III. 

1 Davila, p. 255. 



178 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

His holiness steadily refused his signature to any 
document, and his verbal answers were always ex- 
pressed conditionally, so that he never identified 
himself with the league, but simply approved of the 
extirpation of heresy and the maintenance of the 
doctrines of the church. On this account the Duke 
of Nevers seceded from the confederacy ; for he was 
sincere, and did not make his religion a pretext for 
ambition. 

Although the conspirators had carried on their 
machinations with the most wary circumspection, 
the king was not ignorant that some menacing blow 
was about to be aimed at his crown and dignity. 
He convened his most intimate confidants, to advise 
with them what policy he ought to pursue. The 
Duke of Epernon, the Chancellor Chiverny, and 
Alberto Gondi, Marshal De Retz, recommended him 
to coalesce with the King of Navarre, and destroy 
the Guises before they could organize their forces. 
But the Duke of Joyeuse, who had married the 
king's sister, Villeroi, Secretary of State, and Rene 
de Villiquier, held a contrary opinion. They re- 
presented to the king that if he attacked the Lor- 
raine princes, he must either do so alone, or in con- 
junction with the Huguenots. In the first case, 
he could only depend on his personal friends and 
adherents, as nearly the whole of France was divided 
between the two religious factions, the Calvinists 
being in possession of Poitou, Guienne, Languedoc, 
Gascony, and the greatest part of Dauphiny, while 
the league held Champagne, Burgundy, Picardy, 
Lyonois, Provence, and Brittany ; besides which, 
their influence in Paris was very great. If the king 



REIGN OF HEXRY III. 179 

joined the Huguenots, he would certainly be aban- 
doned by the whole Catholic population, and create 
a revolt in the capital ; that such an act would give 
a colour of justice to the alliance of Spain with the 
league, and would probably induce the pope to aban- 
don his present neutrality. They therefore ad- 
vised him to win over the principal adherents of the 
Guises by negociation, hoping that by this policy 
the confederates would quarrel among themselves, 
and thus disunite, and ultimately break up the 
league. The queen-mother consented to this plan, 
which was adopted by the majority of the council. 
The king, however, gave his consent with reluctance, 
for he had struggled long to diminish the power of 
the Lorraine family, by gradually depriving them 
and their adherents of governorships and other 
offices, and were he now to negociate with them, he 
saw clearly that they would revive their old preten- 
sions, and claim back the posts they had formerly 
filled. The Duke of Epernon, the most favoured of 
the minions, encouraged this disposition ; for he was 
at that time a personal friend to the King of Na- 
varre, and feared, in case the Guises were restored 
to power, that he and others who had supplanted 
them, would be stripped of their emoluments. This 
latter argument was all-powerful with the court 
parasites, and all of them resisted any accommoda- 
tion with the league, except the Duke of Joyeuse, 
who, being allied to the Princes of Lorraine, hoped 
that he might maintain his footing, though all his 
present associates were dismissed. Henry III. re- 
solved to send Epernon to the King of Navarre, and 
the duke was instructed to exhort him to reconcile 

n 2 



180 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

himself to the church with the rest of his family, 
as the most easy and certain means of shaking the 
league to its foundations, and ensuring to himself 
the succession of the throne. 

De Salignan and Roche-Laure, confidential friends 
of the King of Navarre, earnestly advised him to ac- 
cept the overtures proposed, — to trust to the honour 
of the sovereign, to abjure Calvinism, return to court 
as first prince of the blood, and thus conquer his 
enemies without drawing the sword. They argued 
that as individuals made great sacrifices to acquire a 
private inheritance, he ought not to hesitate to sur- 
render his private opinions to secure a crown ; that 
by so doing he would ensure his own tranquillity, 
and establish peace throughout France ; that these 
considerations ought of themselves to determine his 
conduct 

On the other hand, Arnauld de Ferrier, his chan- 
cellor, Philip du Mornay, and D'Aubigny, con- 
tended that temporal hopes or certainties were not to 
be preferred before a clear conscience, and dwelt for- 
cibly on the danger of his damning his soul to eter- 
nal perdition. They represented to him that the 
king and queen were still in the flower of their age ; 
that they might possibly have a son : in that event 
he would be despised and undervalued at court, as he 
formerly had been, with the additional mortification 
of having twice recanted ; that the hope of succeed- 
ing a king but two-and-thirty years old, was very 
remote and problematical, he himself being but little 
younger ; that it was hard to judge which of the 
two, in the course of nature, would be the survivor. 
They pointed out the imprudence of abandoning the 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 181 

party of which he was the recognized head, for a 
contingency so doubtful, and declared their con- 
viction that Henry only wished to make a tem- 
porary tool of him ; that when his object was gained 
he would resume his old hatred, and abase, per- 
secute, and finally destroy the whole Bourbon 
family. 

The King of Navarre hesitated what course to 
pursue. By renouncing Calvinism he smoothed his 
path to the throne ; but he distrusted the sincerity of 
the court, and feared to exchange his present inde- 
pendence for a gorgeous imprisonment ; nay, more, 
should the Guises regain the ascendency, his assassi- 
nation was certain. He was also much influenced 
by the recent conduct of his wife, who was sepa- 
rated from him, and led a licentious life in Auvergne, 
and though her unchastity was not proved, it was 
strongly suspected : he felt that he must receive her 
back, to secure the sincere friendship of the queen- 
mother and the king. These considerations made 
him at last resolve neither to embrace Catholicism nor 
return to the court ; but he offered the assistance of 
his party to serve the king against the league and 
all the enemies of the crown. 

With this answer Epernon returned to his majesty, 
who deeply lamented the failure of the negociation, 
and his embarrassment was soon increased by the 
conduct of the Spanish ambassador. The people of 
the Low Countries, harassed by the military rigours of 
Philip, and waging against him a precarious resist- 
ance, sent deputies to Henry III. inviting him to 
accept the sovereignty of their kingdom. He would 
have been justified in giving them his protection, as 



182 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

Philip notoriously abetted the treasonable designs of 
the league, but he declined the offer made. How- 
ever, the Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, complained 
bitterly that the embassy had even been admitted to 
an audience ; the king indignantly resented this 
affront. On this, Mendoza instantly paid the Duke 
of Guise two hundred thousand crowns for his first 
years pension, according to the treaty signed at 
Jainville, and exhorted him, without delay, to carry 
into execution the designs of the confederacy. His 
instructions were immediately acted upon. 

The Cardinal of Bourbon was Bishop of Rouen ; 
under pretext of keeping Lent in his diocese, he re- 
paired to a country seat he possessed at Gaillon, 
within four leagues of that city. There the Dukes 
of Guise, Mayenne, Aumale, and Elbeuf, accom- 
panied by great numbers of Catholic gentlemen, met 
him, and the league immediately published the fol- 
lowing manifesto : — 

" In the name of God Almighty, the King of 
kings. Be it manifest unto all men that the king- 
dom of France having, for the last fourteen years, 
been tormented with a pestiferous sedition, raised to 
subvert the ancient religion of our fathers, which is 
the strong bond of the state, such remedies have 
been applied, as have nourished rather than cured 
the disease ; fpr they have not established peace, ex- 
cept in favour of those who have constantly violated 
it, leaving honest men scandalized in their consciences 
and injured in their fortunes. Instead of a remedy 
for these mischiefs, which in time might have been 
hoped for, God has permitted that the late kings 
should die young, not leaving as yet any children 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 183 

able to inherit the crown, and (to the grief of all 
good men,) has not yet been pleased to give any to 
the reio'iiino; kino- although his faithful subjects have 
not ceased, and will not cease, their most earnest 
prayers, to beseech God, out of his mercy, to send 
him some : his majesty being the only son remaining 
of all those which his divine goodness gave to Henry 
II. of famous memory, it is much to be feared (which 
God forbid) that his house, to our great misfortune, 
will be extinct, without hope of issue ; and as in the 
nomination of a successor to the throne, great 
tumults will arise throughout Christendom, and per- 
haps the total subversion of the Roman Catholic 
Apostolic religion, in this most Christian kingdom, 
wherein no heretic would be allowed to reign, the 
subjects not being bound to acknowledge or submit 
themselves to the dominion of a prince fallen from 
the Christian Catholic faith ; for the first oath which 
our kings take when the crown is placed upon their 
heads, is to maintain the Roman Catholic Apostolic 
religion, by virtue of which oath, and not otherwise, 
they afterwards receive that of their subjects' 
loyalty. 

" Now, since the death of the Duke of Alencon, the 
pretensions of those who by public profession have 
ever shown themselves persecutors of the Catholic 
church, have been so favoured and upheld, that it is 
exceedingly necessary to make some wise and speedy 
provision against them, to avoid those very apparent 
inconveniencies, the calamities of which are already 
known to all, the remedies to few, and the manner 
of applying them almost to none. We may judge 
of the impending danger by the great preparations 



184 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

to raise soldiers both within and without the king- 
dom, the withholding of towns and strong places 
which long since ought to have been delivered into 
the hands of his majesty, and the negociations with 
the Protestant princes of Germany to levy troops ; 
these designs aim at no other end than the destruc- 
tion of the Catholic religion. Moreover, every one 
knows and plainly sees the actions and deportment 
of some, who having insinuated themselves into the 
favour of the king, (wliose majesty ever has been and 
ever shall be sacred to us,) have totally usurped the 
royal authority, removing from his presence all 
princes and nobles not immediately dependent on 
themselves : some have been deprived of their offices, 
and only allowed to retain their empty titles ; 
governors of provinces, commanders of strong-holds, 
and other officers, have been forced to resign their 
appointments, for certain sums of money, which 
they reluctantly received, but dared not resist ; — a 
new system, hitherto unknown in this kingdom, by 
which means the minions of the court have made 
themselves masters of all forces by land and by sea. 
Moreover, these men have drawn into their own 
pockets all the gold and silver from the king's cof- 
fers, and cruelly oppressed the poor people with vex- 
atious taxes. 

" For these just causes and considerations, we, 
Charles of Bourbon, first prince of the blood, Cardi- 
nal of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church, with 
the advice and assistance of many princes of the 
blood, cardinals, peers, governors of provinces, chief 
lords and gentlemen of cities and corporations, declare 
that we have holily promised to use strong hands, 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 185 

and take up arms, to the end that the holy church 
of God may he restored unto its dignity, and unto 
the true and holy Catholic religion ; that the no- 
bility may enjoy their perfect freedom ; that the 
people may be eased, new taxes forbidden, and all 
fiscal additions since the reion of Charles IX. be ab- 
solutely taken away ; that all the parliaments may 
be left to freedom of conscience, and in entire li- 
berty to pronounce and register their own judgments ; 
that all subjects of the kingdom may be maintained 
in their governments, places, and offices, so that they 
may not be deprived of them, save only in the three 
cases of the ancient constitution, and by sentence of 
the ordinary judges of parliament." ' 

Such was the substance and spirit of this memor- 
able manifesto, which artfully blended together the 
interests of religion, the privileges of the nobles, and 
the rights of the poor, but the sole end and aim of 
which was to put the crown on the head of Guise, 
and on the demise of the king, transfer the govern- 
ment from the Bourbon to the Lorraine family. 
The king answered the manifesto of the league by 
the following proclamation. 

After a preamble, in which he admonished his sub- 
jects not to be deluded by the arts and intrigues of 
factious and discontented men, he entered more 
minutely into details. As to religion, he remarked 
that he had fought against, and triumphed over, the 
Calvinists before his accession to the throne ; that 
since his coronation he had zealously and invariably 
supported the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church ; 

1 Davila, p. 261, 2, 3, 4, 5. 



186 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

that he had constantly endeavoured to maintain 
peace and prevent the effusion of blood, as true 
Christianity taught him to do ; that if he had not con- 
sented to levy war against the Huguenots, as the 
States of Bloise desired, it was because they refused 
to vote the money required for its prosecution ; that 
by the policy he had pursued, the prelates and clergy 
were peaceably settled in their churches and in the 
receipt of their tithes, the nobility lived securely in 
their castles, the citizen in his house, the peasant in 
his cottage ; and that the merchant could carry on 
his trade without fear of being plundered by a pre- 
datory soldiery. In reference to the administration 
of justice, the king observed that he had abolished 
supernumerary offices, and prohibited the sale of 
judicial appointments ; that he had put a stop to 
evocations, by which causes were transferred from 
one court to another, so vexatiously as to prevent 
any final decision ; that he had sent officers from 
the parliament of Paris into the provinces, to settle 
causes which were liable to be partially adjudicated 
through local prejudice. As to the extinction of the 
house of Valois in his person, he said that he was 
in perfect health, and in the flower of his age, and 
might reasonably hope to be blessed with a son. 
He denied that he had given offices of trust and 
dignity to those unworthy of them ; that such nom- 
inations formed part of his prerogative, and that he 
w^as best able to judge who were the true and faith- 
ful servants of the monarchy. He concluded with 
a strong exhortation to peace. l 

i Pavila, p. 270, 271, &c. 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 187 

The king's appeal to the nation produced no effect. 
The sword was drawn. The league advanced with 
success. Lyons first opened its gates to them. 
They failed before Marseilles and Bordeaux, but 
made themselves masters of Bourges, Orleans, and 
Angers, in the heart of the kingdom. The famous 
faction of the Sixteen was organized in Paris, and 
the metropolis became the centre of the confederacy, 
from which an active and extensive correspondence 
was carried on throughout the provinces. The king 
became seriously alarmed ; he saw the danger by 
which he was menaced, but he saw that alone ; the 
resources by which it might have been parried 
never occurred to him. The strength of the league 
was more apparent than real, and by firmness it 
might have been subdued ; but Henry wanted the 
requisite energy : he adopted the weakest and most 
fatal policy to which any sovereign can ever have 
recourse, — he treated with his rebellious subjects 
with arms in their hands. The Duke of Guise lis- 
tened to a negociation proposed by Catharine, and 
stated that he desired nothing but a royal edict 
against the Huguenots, declaring that no other re- 
ligion but the Roman Catholic should be permitted 
in the kingdom, incapacitating the Calvinists from 
holding any office or dignity whatever, and with a 
promise from the king that, unless the reformers at 
once submitted to these conditions, he would compel 
their observance by force of arms. To this dicta- 
torial demand the imbecile Henry submitted, and, 
on the 7th of July, 1585, he signed the ignominious 
treaty of Nemours. 



188 REIGN OP HENRY III. 

The following was its substance. That the king- 
should prohibit every other religion in the kingdom, 
except the Roman Catholic ; that he should banish 
ail the heretic preachers out of his dominions ; that 
the estates of the Huguenots should be confiscated ; 
that war should be declared against them without 
delay, such war to be conducted by officers w T ho 
possessed the confidence of the league ; that the 
courts of justice established in favour of the Hugue- 
nots, by which they were to be tried by six Catho- 
lics and six Calvinists, should be abolished ; that the 
Huguenots should not hold any public appointment 
whatever, unless they made a profession of faith, 
conformable to the Romish religion ; that the Dukes 
of Guise, Mayenne, Aumale, Mercceur, and Elbeuf, 
besides their ordinary governments, should keep the 
cities of Chalons, Toul, Verdun, Saint Dizier, Reims, 
Soissons, Dijon, Beaune, Rue in Picardy, Dinan 
and Concarnu in Brittany ; that a certain number of 
mounted arquebusiers should be paid by the crown, 
and serve as guards to the Cardinals of Bourbon and 
Guise, and the Dukes of Guise, Mayenne, Aumale, 
Mercceur, and Elbeuf; that the Duke of Guise 
should receive one hundred thousand crowns to 
build a citadel in Yerdun, and that two regiments 
of infantry, belonging to the league, should be paid 
by the king ; that two hundred thousand crowns 
should be disbursed to satisfy the claims of the Ger- 
man auxiliaries raised by the league, on receipt of 
which tliey would be dismissed ; finally, that' the 
league should not be called upon to refund one hun- 
dred and ten thousand ducats which they had taken 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 189 

from the royal revenue, and which they had spent 
for the advancement of the confederacy. > 

Such were the terms of this infamous treaty. 
From the hour of its signature Henry III. ceased to 
be de facto King of France ; he was no more than 
the nominal chief of a religious faction, who despised 
him for his imbecility. The edict of Nemours was 
registered in parliament, at a bed of justice held on 
the 18th of July, 1585. 

The pretensions of the Cardinal of Bourbon to the 
throne, which had been put forward as the ostensi- 
ble motive to the last rebellion, were not specifically 
settled by this treaty. The leaguers merely re- 
quired that the king should recognize him, not as 
first prince of the blood, but as the nearest, which he 
really was, as brother to the late King of Navarre. 
Nothing was decided as to the family line of repre- 
sentation, — the advantage which the nephew had 
over the uncle, in case the throne became vacant. 
The Duke of Guise obtained all that he could have 
desired. Those who censure hirn for making peace, 
and insist that he should have pushed his advantage 
further, have not properly appreciated his real posi- 
tion. His troops were not numerous, and the favour 
of the people fluctuates from day to day ; the fate of 
arms is ever uncertain ; moreover, had Guise 
achieved a complete victory, it could only have 
been as the general of the Cardinal of Bourbon, 
whereas his sole object was the advancement of his 
own personal interests and those of his family : by 
making peace on the terms he obtained, he secured 

1 Davila, p. 276. 



190 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

the government of towns for his adherents, and their 
garrisons depended on him alone; he drew the 
money for their payment : thus his position was 
immensely strengthened, and he had only to raise 
the cry of " No Calvinism," to rekindle hostilities 
at his pleasure. 

When the King of Navarre received intelligence of 
this fatal treaty, his grief and consternation w^ere 
excessive. Mathieu, the historian, states that such 
was the agitation of his mind, that one half of his 
moustaches suddenly turned white. 1 But he was of 
too lofty a character to succumb to misfortune ; he 
grappled with his difficulties in the resolute spirit of 
a hero. He won over to his interest the Duke of 
Montmorenci, governor of Languedoc, a sincere 
Catholic, but whose distrust of the Guises induced 
him to sign an alliance offensive and defensive with 
Bourbon. The very extent of the danger which 
menaced the whole kingdom proved advantageous 
to him. His friends displayed increased devoted- 
ness ; the indifferent joined him, partly from ad- 
miration of his fortitude, partly because they were 
clear-sighted enough to perceive that he was 'the 
victim of a base and unprincipled faction, who, to 
compass their ambitious views, would run the hazard 

1 The King of Navarre was not the only person who was 
panic-struck at these remarkable events. The Duke of Guise 
confessed that when he went to Saint-Maur, to pay his obeisance 
to the king, after the treaty of Nemours had been signed, he 
trembled when he found himself in the midst of the royal 
guard, and in presence of the sovereign whom he had so cruelly 
outraged. " I thought myself dead," said he, Ct and my hat 
seemed lifted up on the tips of my hair. v — Esprit de la Lig\ie y 
torn. ii. p. 84. 



REIGN OF HEXRY III. 191 

of laying France prostrate at trie feet of Spain. 
Small detachments of troops reached him from foreign 
countries, the precursors of more formidable levies ; 
and this prince, who was supposed by many to be 
preparing for flight, was soon strong enough to at- 
tack his enemies. 

Before the Kino* of Navarre commenced hostilities, 
he published a manifesto at Bergerac, in which he 
bitterly complained of being stigmatized as a re- 
lapsed heretic, a persecutor of the church, a dis- 
turber of the state, and a sworn enemy of the Catho- 
lics • — false and malicious libels on his character, in- 
vented to deprive him of the royal succession. He 
denied being a relapsed heretic, affirming that he 
had never changed his opinions ; that he had sent 
an ambassador to Rome, was true, but he had no 
other alternative to save his life; that when he ob- 
tained his liberty, he declared that he had never 
really altered his religion. He disclaimed the charge 
of heresy, for the truth or falsehood of the re- 
formed doctrines were not yet decided upon by any 
competent authority, and avowed that he was still, 
and ever had been, open to conviction. He repudi- 
ated the accusation of having persecuted the Catho- 
lics, showing that many of that creed held high 
offices in his hereditary dominions, and that others 
were constantly in attendance on his person ; he 
averred that he had never molested the persons or 
touched the revenues of the Romish priests. He 
offered to put all his fortresses in the hands of the 
kino* if the Guises and their adherents would imi- 
tate his example. He denounced the Lorraine 
princes as foreigners, — contrasted their conduct with 



192 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

that of his own family, — accused them of having in- 
troduced new and onerous forms of taxation, — of 
having insulted the ancient nobility of France, and 
having polluted the administration of justice : he re- 
minded the public of their conduct during the reigns 
of Henry II. and Francis II., when they sold the 
high offices of state, and put the purchase-money 
into their own pockets. He concluded with de- 
manding permission of his majesty to give the lie to 
his enemies, which he did in terms the most unequi- 
vocal, and offered to decide the quarrel with the 
Duke of Guise by duel, either singly, or with two, 
ten, or twenty on a side, as Guise might prefer, 
either in France or in some foreign country. 

The challenge was not accepted ; but as the league 
were apprehensive that their champion might be sus- 
pected of cowardice, and thus lose much of his in- 
fluence among a people chivalrously enamoured of 
personal courage, they circulated pamphlets to the 
effect that no Catholic bore any personal enmity to 
the King of Navarre ; that they merely condemned 
his Calvinistic principles, from regard to the safety 
of religion and the tranquillity of their consciences ; 
and that these objects were too sacredly precious to 
be staked on the contingency of single combat. In 
fact, the league wished for a general war of exter- 
mination, in which they might massacre every Hu- 
guenot in the kingdom. 

Henry III. now summoned to the Louvre the 
two first presidents of the parliament of Paris, the 
mayor, the Dean of Notre-Dame, and the Cardinal 
of Guise. He thus addressed them : — " I am de- 
lighted," said the king, in a tone of irony, a sneer 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 193 

playing on his lips, " to have at length followed the 
prudent advice you gave me, in revoking, at your 
request, the last edict which I granted in favour of 
the Calvinists. I confess I felt some pain in can- 
celling it : not that I am less zealous than another 
for the interests of religion, but because past ex- 
perience has taught me that I was about to engage 
in an enterprise surrounded by difficulties which I 
deem to be insurmountable ; but since the die is cast, 
I hope, assisted by the wisdom of so many worthy 
gentlemen, that I may bring this formidable war to 
a happy conclusion. To undertake and finish it 
with honour, I require three armies. One will re- 
main near my person ; I shall send a second into 
Guienne, and the third to the frontier, to prevent 
the Germans penetrating into France ; for, whatever 
may be averred to the contrary, it is certain they 
will pay us a visit. I always thought it dangerous 
to revoke the last edict, but since war is resolved 
upon, I see that difficulties thicken, and they must 
at once be guarded against : it will be too late to 
deliberate when the enemy is at our gates, and when 
we see from our windows our farms and mills in 
flames, as we have seen them on former occasions. 
This war, I repeat it, has been undertaken against 
my willino* consent : but, no matter ; I am resolved 
to spare neither labour nor expense to ensure its 
success ; and since you would not listen to me, when 
I advised you not to think of breaking the peace, 
it is only just that you should assist me to prosecute 
the war. As I have undertaken it at your request, I 
do not intend to bear the whole burden on my own 
shoulders." 



194 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 



Then turning to M. de Harlai, he said, " I warmly 
praise the zeal of yourself and colleagues, who so 
strongly approved of the revocation of the edict, and 
exhorted me so earnestly to take in hand the de- 
fence of religion ; but I also wish that you and they 
may know that war cannot be carried on without 
money ; therefore, while it lasts, you must not ex- 
pect the payment of your salaries to be continued. 

" As to you, Mr. Mayor, you must be persuaded 
that I cannot do less with the revenues of the Hotel- 
de-Yille. Therefore, assemble the citizens of my 
good city of Paris, and declare to them, that since 
the revocation of the edict has given them such 
lively satisfaction, I trust they will not hesitate to 
furnish me with two hundred thousand gold crowns, 
which I require for the war. After an accurate 
calculation, I find that the expense will amount to 
four hundred thousand crowns a month." 

He then addressed the Cardinal of Guise : " You 
see, my lord, the nature of my arrangements : with 
my own resources, added to those I shall draw from 
individuals, I hope to furnish the ways and means 
for the first month ; you will take care that the 
clergy provide the rest, for I will not support the 
weight of it alone, nor involve myself in ruin. Dp 
not imagine that I shall wait for the consent of the 
pope ; for, since the war is a religious war, my con- 
science tells me that I ought to make use of the re- 
venues of the church, and I shall certainly do so 
without the least scruple. It is specially at the 
urgent solicitation of the clergy that I have under- 
taken this enterprise ; it is a holy war, therefore the 
church is bound to defray the expense." 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 195 

When he had concluded this caustic harangue, 
many rose up to remonstrate, but he would not hear 
them. " You had better have followed my advice," 
said the king, in an angry tone, " and maintained 
the peace, instead of holding councils of war in your 
shops and cloisters. I apprehend that this attempt to 
put down the preachers, will bring the mass into 
danger. However, you must now act, and leave off 
talking." He then abruptly retired, leaving the 
whole audience in consternation, for they saw clearly 
that the king intended to make war on their pockets, 
as well as on the Huguenots. 

Immediately after this conference, his majesty de- 
sired the Duke of Guise to name the generals to 
whom the armies were to be entrusted : the latter re- 
solved that the Duke of Mayenne should command 
the army of Guienne, which was to march against 
the King of Navarre, while he reserved to himself the 
troops that were to protect the frontier against the 
Germans. On receiving this answer, the king ap- 
pointed Marshal Matignon, on whose fidelity he 
could depend, lieutenant of Guienne, under the Duke 
of Mayenne : he sent Marshal Biron into Saintonge, 
and the Duke of Joyeuse into Gascony, by which 
means he could, at pleasure, neutralize the operations 
of Mayenne, as the contiguity of the provinces would 
always enable Biron and Joyeuse to surround his 
army, and prevent his operations being very ex- 
tended. 

Before hostilities commenced, Henry dispatched 
another deputation to the King of Navarre, com- 
posed of theologians, lawyers, and politicians osten- 
sibly to convert him, but really ta give him more 

o 2 



196 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

time to prepare for his defence. Bourbon peremp- 
torily replied that he would not return to the prison 
of the court; that arms ought not to have been 
taken up against him, who had always observed 
the king's commands, but against the perverse ambi- 
tion of the heads of the league : he sneered at the 
cowardice of the Duke of Guise, who might have 
ended all disputes, by accepting his challenge ; and 
concluded by saying, that it neither comported with 
his honour or conscience to be dragged to mass by 
force, but that he would trust in God to protect his 
innocence, as he had miraculously done in former 
times. 

The ninth religious war then commenced. It was 
called the war of the three Henries ; — of Henry III. 
at the head of the royalists, of Henry of Guise at 
the head of the leaguers, and of Henry of Navarre 
at the head of the Calvinists. 

At this critical juncture died Pope Gregory XIII., 
who had steadily refused to identify himself with 
the league, or put the Bourbon princes out of the 
pale of the church ; he left the door open for their 
conversion. He was succeeded by Felici Peretti, a 
friar of the order of Saint Francis, who took the 
title of Sixtus V. This pontiff excommunicated the 
King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde, declaring 
them to be relapsed heretics, and as such incapable 
of the royal succession ; he deprived them of their 
estates, absolved their subjects and vassals from alle- 
giance, and menaced with anathema all who should 
henceforward serve them in a military or civil capa- 
city. The Bourbon princes braved the pope, and 
posted on the walls of the Vatican a protest against 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 197 

his sentence. " In treating us as heretics," they 
said, " Sixtus has lied ; he himself ought to be re- 
garded as a heretic : they were ready to prove him 
a heretic in a general council, but till that was con- 
vened, they held him to be Anti-Christ, and in that 
character vowed against him mortal and irreconcil- 
able war, reserving to themselves the right of punish- 
ing him or his successors for the insult offered to the 
royal majesty of France. They appealed from his 
sentence to the tribunal of peers, of which they were 
members, and invited all kings, princes, and republics 
in Christendom to unite with them in chastising the 
temerity of Sixtus. 

On the other hand, the hopes of the league were 
raised to the most extravagant pitch by the papal 
espousal of their cause. The sanction of his holiness 
was the text of every sermon. Victory was sure to 
follow a banner blessed by the vicegerent of God ; 
and the zealots already celebrated the extirpation of 
their enemies. But the denunciation of Rome was 
received in a different spirit by the more calm and 
reflecting members of the confederacy, for it struck 
at the political liberties of the kingdom, and might 
at some future period be twisted into a precedent to 
invade the privileges of the Gallican church. The 
lawyers of parliament and many of the prelates con- 
demned the bull of excommunication, contending 
that the succession to the throne could only be de- 
cided by the states-general of the kingdom, and that 
so important a national question did not fall within 
the spiritual jurisdiction of the court of Rome. They 
brought to mind the summons of Pius IV., who had 
cited the Queen of Navarre before his tribunal, to 



198 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

pronounce her confession of faith, which Charles IX. 
had indignantly resisted : the parliament in a body- 
presented themselves before the king, insisting that 
the bull should be torn in pieces, and demanding 
the punishment of those who had procured it. 
Henry, with his habitual weakness, answered, that 
he would take time to reflect on the matter. The 
affair was dropped ; but though never accepted by 
the parliament or officially registered, it was dili- 
gently circulated by the league among all their ad- 
herents. 

The moral effect of this extreme measure on the 
fortunes of the King of Navarre was on the whole 
advantageous to his cause ; for though it detached 
great numbers from his party, these were of the low- 
est and most ignorant class ; it gained him the open 
adherence of many noblemen and gentlemen of rank 
and influence, and induced others, who did not 
choose publicly to join him, to stand neutral, or 
favour him in secret. The challenge he sent to the 
Duke of Guise, — his manly defiance of the pope, — - 
the fortitude with which he encountered difficulty, 
— the severe misfortunes he had incurred, — all con- 
curred to make him an object of interest, of admir- 
ation, of pity ; they gained him the sympathy of 
the generous and heroic. 

The Swiss cantons sent deputies to Henry III., en- 
treating him to act leniently towards the Calvinists. 
The Germans, animated by the famous Theodore 
Beza, whose eloquence had shone so brilliantly at 
the colloquy of Poissy, armed in defence of their 
French co-religionists, and enthusiasm gave to their 
movements the character of a Protestant crusade. 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 199 

The King of Navarre took trie field : under such a 
leader, small bodies equalled armies. He marched 
from victory to victory ; his troops were fired with 
his spirit ; he captured fortresses, subjugated pro- 
vinces, and baffled all the tactics of Mayenne. The 
Prince of Conde took Angers ; it was soon retaken : 
this prince, hurried away by impetuosity, crossed 
the Loire, without possessing the command of a sin- 
gle bridge : he was defeated and his little army dis- 
banded. Compelled to flee in disguise, he reached 
Avranches in Lower Normandy, escaped to the 
island of Guernsey, and after many perils arrived in 
England. 

The late edict had commanded all the Huguenots 
to quit the kingdom within six months after its pro- 
mulgation ; two of that period were unexpired ; the 
leaguers prevailed on the king to shorten the term 
to fifteen days. Bourbon prohibited the observance 
of the edict, in whole or in part, throughout his here- 
ditary dominions and the provinces he had subdued ; 
he also confiscated the property of the Catholics, and 
sold it to defray the expenses of the war. Under 
these circumstances the year 1586 opened. 

The Duke of Mayenne, seized with fever, was 
obliged to quit the camp, and retire to Bordeaux. 
Marshal Matignon, his lieutenant in Guienne, know- 
ing the secret wishes of Henry III., offered nq, 
active opposition to the King of Navarre ; but as 
soon as Mayenne recovered his health, he assaulted 
and captured Chatillon. Bourbon, too weak to meet 
him in the open field, had strongly fortified his castles ; 
they resisted, and Mayenne only succeeded in re- 



200 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

ducing insignificant towns, while his army languished 
under continued sickness. 

The Prince of Conde returned to Rochelle with 
aid received from England, sacked the castle of 
Dampierre, and made himself master of Soubise and 
Mornac, keeping the whole country in awe. He 
fought a severe battle near the isle of Oleron, where 
the loss was equal on both sides, but almost all the 
Calvinist chiefs were killed or wounded. There 
perished Rieuz and Suilly, sens of the noble-minded 
D'Andelot, and they were quickly followed to the 
grave by their eldest brother, Guy de Laval, worn 
out with constant toil and anxiety. 1 

Marshal Biron commanded the royalists in Saint- 
onge. He was friendly to the King of Navarre, but 
emulous of fame, and fearing to be eclipsed in mili- 
tary reputation by the Lorraine princes, he laid siege 
to the town of Marenne, the possession of which 
would have enabled him to block up Rochelle by 
land. Marenne, contiguous to the sea, is encom- 
passed by marshy ground, and access to its fortifica- 
tions could only be obtained through narrow roads, 
where the soil was tolerably firm. These the King 
of Navarre shut up with trenches, erecting a fort at 
the end of every avenue, into each of which he threw 
artillery and a body of musketeers. It was at- 
tacked, but the assailants were repulsed, and Biron 
was wounded in the hand. The marshal now pro- 
ceeded more warily, and began to raise forts against 
those of the besieged. 

In the mean time the king was raising fresh 
1 Davila, p. 294. 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 201 

armies, which he resolved to entrust to his favourites, 
that he might turn them at pleasure against the 
league. He had already levied from the clergy one 
million two hundred thousand crowns, and he ap- 
plied to Rome for a licence to appropriate to the 
uses of war one hundred thousand crowns per an- 
num of ecclesiastical revenue. He hoped by these 
means to compel peace, but he did not succeed. 

The German auxiliaries were preparing to march 
to the relief of the Calvinists ; the king, alarmed at 
this movement, now bethought himself of another 
line of policy. He determined to coalesce with Bour- 
bon, unite the royalists with the Huguenots and 
Germans, and thus at one blow crush the league. 
This plan required negociation ; the queen-mother 
undertook its management. Two obstacles pre- 
sented themselves — the marriage of the King of Na- 
varre and his religion. The first was easily over- 
come : Catharine and her son both abandoned Mar- 
garet of Valois, dishonoured by her vices; they 
agreed to her divorce, intending to marry Bourbon 
to Christine, daughter of the Duke of Lorraine, by 
Claude, sister to Henry III. The religious difficulty 
they hoped to conquer by the temptation of the 
crown, and left it to the chapter of accidents. In 
fact, whichever way they turned, they saw no cer- 
tainties ; their position compelled them to speculate 
on probabilities. 

A truce between Biron and the King of Navarre 
was proclaimed, and the latter proceeded to meet 
Catharine. The interview took place at Saint Bris, 
in Poitou, nearly on the confines of Saintonge. 
Catharine opened her proposals with the divorce of 



202 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 



Margaret and the marriage of Christine, promising 
that the marriage contract should contain a specific 
clause declaring Bourbon first prince of the blood 
and lawful successor to the throne. This union, she 
said, would sever the Duke of Lorraine from the 
Duke of Guise, and thus weaken the league ; then, 
by joining the Germans with the royalists, the de- 
struction of the confederacy was certain. All she 
required was his abjuration of heresy, in which case 
she engaged that the pope would revoke the sentence 
of excommunication. 

Bourbon answered, that the king might make use 
of the Germans against the league, without his 
changing his religion; that his majesty had ex- 
perienced his fidelity ; that he ought not now to be 
distrusted ; that he could not go to court with 
safety, while the Guises held any power ; that the 
feelings of the Parisians were against him, and that 
they would be incited to assassinate him. Catharine 
replied that his conversion must be the basis of any 
arrangement ; that the king could not countenance 
him, while he remained rebellious to the church and 
excommunicated ; that the Duke of Lorraine would 
not permit the consummation of the marriage while 
he was under papal censure, nor would the states- 
general allow him to be declared successor to the 
throne. 

Bourbon demanded two days for reflection, but he 
visited the queen, who had brought in her train the 
most voluptuous beauties of the court : by their 
agency she hoped to gain her point. Catharine 
asked him, in a marked tone of voice, and with ges- 
tures not to be mistaken, what he would have ? he 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 203 

replied, looking earnestly at the brilliant circle, 
" There is nothing here, madam, that I would 
have." 1 Mathieu, the historian, adds, that on 
Catharine pressing him to make some overture, 
u Madam," said he, " there is no overture here 
for me." 

Pending this interview, Henry III., on the 1st of 
January, 1587, on celebrating the ceremonies of the 
Knights of the Holy Ghost in Paris, swore solemnly 
not to tolerate any other religion than the Roman 
Catholic. He was induced to take this step in con- 
sequence of letters he had received from Catharine, 
dated the 27th of December, in which she told her 
son that she saw no prospect of Bourbons changing 
his creed. The king, therefore, to convince him that 
this was the indispensable condition of their union, 
took the oath stated ; but he failed in his policy, for 
it put an end to the negociation. 

The conduct of Catharine at this interview has 
been open to much criticism. It is certain that she 
entertained no affection for the King of Navarre, and 
it is notorious that he distrusted every word she 
uttered. So long as Henry III. had possibility of 
issue, she did not desire that the Guises should 
crush Bourbon, for then they might easily have 
destroyed the last living scion of the house of Valois ; 
but she wished to give such support to the league, 
as might, in case her son died childless, place the 
crown on the head of her grand-daughter. This, 
however, the Salic law, which excluded females, for- 
bade. " She greatly wished the abolition of that 

1 Perefixe. 



204 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

law," says Brantome, " in order that her daughter, 
or her daughters children, might reign ; and in re- 
ference to this subject she frequently quoted the 
opinion of Cardinal Granvelle, who denounced the 
Salic law as an abuse." The excessive ambition of 
Catharine, always manifested to secure thrones for 
her children, (as in the cases of the Dukes of Anjou 
and Alencon,) might have induced her to conquer 
her repugnance to the King of Navarre, on condition 
that he married her grand- daughter, Christine of 
Lorraine. 

Sully taxes her with hypocrisy and deceit through- 
out the whole affair. He says that she urged Bour- 
bon to change his religion, that he might forfeit the 
confidence of the French Protestants, lose the friend- 
ship of England, and prevent the Germans march- 
ing to his assistance. He states positively that the 
ladies D'Uzes and De Sauves, who knew the real 
motives of Catharine better than any other persons, 
told him she only appealed to religion as a pretext, * 
and assured him that the King of Navarre could only 
extricate himself from his difficulties by force of arms. 
" These words," says Sully, " I have always be- 
lieved to bo sincere, though spoken in a court where, 
next to gallantry, nothing was so much cultivated as 
falsehood." 

The embarrassment of Henry was now extreme. 
To join the league against the Calvinists, was to 

1 It has been often asserted that the interests of true religion 
never influenced the politics of this queen. Witness the words 
that escaped her, when she thought the battle of Dreux was lost: 
M Well, the worst that can happen is, that we must pray to God 
in French !" 



KEIGX OF HENRY III. 205 

play the game of the Duke of Guise ; to join the 
Calvinists against the league, was to put the throne 
in peril ; he was too weak to attack both of them as 
rebels; moreover, the Germans were advancing. 
His counsellors were divided in opinion. Joyeuse, 
one of the minions, Villeroi, one of the principal 
ministers, and the queen-mother, urged him to 
coalesce openly with the league. Epernon, another 
minion, and all whom the insolent pretensions of the 
Guises had disgusted, advised him to unite with the 
Bourbons. At length he decided for the league, and 
that the Lorraines might not reap the glory of any 
successful battle, Villeroi prevailed on him to head 
his armies in person. In addition to the forces al- 
ready in the field, the king raised eight thousand 
Swiss and fourteen thousand French infantry, and 
the main object of the campaign was to prevent the 
Germans effecting a junction with the Bourbon 
princes. On the 18th of September, 1587, these 
foreign auxiliaries reached the confines of France, and 
took up their first quarters at Saint-Urbin, a town 
belonging to the Duke of Guise, which they totally 
burned. They numbered sixteen thousand cavalry 
and twenty thousand infantry, flanked by four thou- 
sand Frenchmen. Guise only mustered three thou- 
sand foot and fifteen hundred horse. 

The auxiliaries advanced, confident in their strength, 
despising their opponents. They crossed Champagne 
and Burgundy, directing their march towards the 
head of the Loire, intending to cross it at La Charite, 
as the Duke of Deux-Ponts had done, and there 
unite them selves with the army of the King of Xa- 
varre. Guise watched their movements ; he hovered 



206 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 



on their rear, but was too weak to attack them. 
Wine and fruit proved his best allies ; these the 
Germans consumed immoderately, and sickness 
thinned their ranks. Still they moved onward ; 
they passed the Seine at Chatillon, but would not 
follow the line of march indicated by the King of 
Navarre, which led through a barren and moun- 
tainous country, but spread themselves over the fer- 
tile plains to pillage and fare luxuriously. But 
they soon had reason to repent their rashness. Henry 
III. had marched to oppose them with eight thou- 
sand Swiss, ten thousand French foot, and four 
thousand cavalry ; he blocked up all the fords and 
passes, garrisoned all the principal towns on the 
Loire, removed all the boats, and encamped on the 
banks of the river. This hostile attitude disconcerted 
the German commanders, who had been told that 
the king would offer them no real resistance, and 
that they had no one to dread but the Duke of 
Guise ; him they despised on account of his nume- 
rical inferiority. The German cavalry demanded 
their pay, and mutinied. The whole army retreated ; 
but a messenger was sent to the King of Navarre, 
demanding money, and instructions how they should 
proceed to effect their junction. That prince was 
already marching to meet his allies; the Duke of 
Joyeuse resolved to intercept him. They met in 
Perigord, on the 20th of October, 1587, near the 
small village of Coutras, which has given its name 
to the battle. 

The royalists were ten thousand strong. The 
Calvinist army was composed of four thousand in- 
fantry, and two thousand five hundred cavalry; 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 207 

but the disparity of numbers was balanced by disci- 
pline. Joyeuse was a courtier, Bourbon a soldier. 
The officers of the former were dressed in richly 
ornamented costume, with brilliant plumes; their 
servants wore gay liveries. The Huguenots displayed 
nought but iron and arms rusty with rain. It was 
the army of Darius against that of Alexander. The 
King of Navarre drew up his forces in the form of 
a cresent ; the Prince of Conde and the Count of 
Soissons were on his right; the Viscount of Tu- 
renne on his left. " My friends," exclaimed the king, 
" behold a prey much more considerable than any of 
your former booties ; it is a bridegroom who has still 
the nuptial present in his pocket, and all the chief 
courtiers with him ;" then, turning to Conde and 
Soissons, he said, " All that I shall observe to you 
is, that you are of the house of Bourbon, and, please 
God, I will show you that I am your elder bro- 
ther." 1 

The battle was decided in half an hour. The vic- 
tory of the Calvinists was complete ; five thousand 
of the enemy were left dead on the field ; five hundred 
were taken prisoners. In the King of Navarre's 
army very few soldiers were slain, and not one per- 
son of distinction. The Duke of Joyeuse, thrown 
to the ground, offered ten thousand crowns for his 
ransom : he w T as slain in cold blood ; three pistol- 
balls passed through his prostrate body. 2 The 
Bourbon princes performed prodigies of valour on 
that day, but the King of Navarre shone superior to 
all. He wore a white plume of feathers on his hel- 

1 Le Grain, Decade de Henri Quatre, torn. iv. 
2 Davila, p. 322. 



208 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 



met, that he might be conspicuous. Some of his 
friends, throwing themselves before him to defend 
and cover his person, he cried, " Give me room, I 
beseech you ; you stifle me : I would be seen." 
He forced the first ranks of the enemy, took several 
prisoners with his own hand, and collared an officer 
named Chateau Renard, exclaiming, " Yield thee, 
Philistine." He placed the body of Joyeuse in a 
leaden coffin, and restored it to his family ; the dead 
minion was buried magnificently at Paris. l 

All the historians agree that the King of Navarre 
did not take due advantage of this victory. Even 
Sully condemns him. He went to Beam, to lay at 
the feet of the Duchess of Guiche, of whom he was 
enamoured, the colours he had taken at Coutras. 
Sully states that the ambitious designs and self- 
interested views of many of the Protestant leaders, 
paralyzed the efforts of the King of Navarre. He 
accuses the Prince of Conde of then attempting to 
dismember from the crown of France, Anjou, Poitou, 
Anis, Saintonge, and Angoumois, of which he in- 
tended to form an independent sovereignty for him- 
self : he states that the Viscount of Turenne had the 
same designs on Limousin and Perigord, and that 
the Count of Soissons, who had gained the affections 
of the King of Navarre's sister, and sought her in 

1 Anne, Duke of Joyeuse, had married the sister of the king's 
consort. When ambassador at Rome he was treated as the 
king's brother. He had a heart worthy of his elevated fortunes. 
One day, having made the two secretaries of state wait longer 
than was respectful in the royal anti-chamber, he made an 
apology, and gave them one hundred thousand crowns as a pre- 
sent, which he had just received from the king for his own use. 
— Notes to tlie Henriade. 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 209 

marriage, meditated the abandonment of his bene- 
factor. This last accusation is true ; but De Thou 
differs from Sully in the other two points, and seems 
to think that in these censures he wrote with pre- 
judice and passion. That historian, speaking of the 
consequences of the battle of Coutras, says, that a 
council beino- assembled to deliberate on what mea- 
sures should be adopted, the Prince of Conde pro- 
posed to march and meet the German auxiliaries on 
the bank of the Loire, securing to themselves a pas- 
sage over the river by capturing Saumur ; that this 
advice was overruled ; that it was only agreed that 
the Prince of Conti, brother of the Prince of Conde, 
should proceed with such troops as could be spared, 
to join the German army in the direction of the source 
of the Loire, taking; his road through the heart of An- 
goumois and Limousin. The Prince of Conde, there- 
fore, is not guilty of the charge brought against him 
by Sully, nor is there any evidence, but his own 
assertion, to inculpate the Viscount of Turenne. 7 

At this juncture the Germans were in great con- 
fusion; the Duke of Epernon constantly beat up 
their quarters, which convinced them that the king 



1 The King of Navarre held the Prince of Conde in the high- 
est esteem. He was profoundly afflicted at his death ; he was 
heard to weep bitterly on that occasion, and exclaim, e * I have 
lost my right hand." — Perefixe. Conde died at Saint Jean 
D'Angely, on the 5th of March, 1588, aged thirty-five years. 
He was poisoned by a servant named Brilliant. His second 
wife, Charlotte Catharine de la Tremouille, was suspected of 
being an accomplice in the murder. After six years' imprison- 
ment, she was acquitted of the crime charged against her, by the 
parliament of Paris: Brilliant was torn to pieces by four horses. 

P 



210 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

was their decided enemy. The Protestant Swiss in- 
fantry, incorporated with the Germans, became un- 
ruly, for they saw the banners of their native can- 
tons in the royal army, though indeed they were 
carried by Swiss Catholics; still they were re- 
luctant to fight against their own countrymen. The 
death of their commander, who sunk under a malig- 
nant fever, increased their insubordination. This 
mutinous spirit was known to the Duke of Guise, 
and he resolved to take advantage of it. 

The Germans were within twenty-eight leagues 
of Paris, and quartered in three divisons. Their 
leader, Baron Honan, with the main strength of the 
cavalry, was at Yilmory ; the Swiss were sta- 
tioned under the walls of Montargis, two leagues 
distant from Yilmory ; the remainder were scattered 
round those two villages, some a league, some two 
leagues, from head-quarters. Guise had received 
correct intelligence of this arrangement, and deter- 
mined to attack them ; his brother, Mayenne, ridi- 
culed the attempt. Guise insisted ; Mayenne remon- 
strated, and advised him to take time for reflection ; 
but Guise sharply answered that, if he could not 
make up his mind in a quarter of an hour, he would 
never do so during the whole of his life. He 
reached the enemy's encampment in the night, entered 
Vilmory when the Germans were asleep, set it on 
fire, made a fearful slaughter, collected a great booty, 
and retreated before break of day. 

This unexpected attack increased the dismay of 
the foreign auxiliaries, and the mutinous spirit be- 
came more violent than ever. At this juncture the 
Prince of Conti joined them, without money, but he 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 211 

brought news of the victory at Coutras. This rallied 
the drooping spirits of the Germans, who now felt 
confident that the King of Navarre would easily 
unite his forces to their own ; but they were disap- 
pointed. The Duke of Guise vigilantly watched 
every opportunity to follow up his first success. The 
Germans occupied the small town of Auneau ; but as 
the castle held out for the king, they had blocked up 
all the streets that led to it with carts chained to- 
gether, barrels, and logs of wood. Baron Honan, their 
commander, though a dauntless soldier, was a bad 
general ; his discipline was lax ; his soldiers were 
constantly intoxicated. Guise again attacked them 
when buried in wine and sleep ; he set fire to their 
barricades ; the slaughter was immense : Honan vain- 
ly attempted to rally the Swiss and French ; the 
victory of the Catholics was complete. 

Henry III., jealous of the laurels gained by Guise, 
now determined to pursue the foreigners hotly ; the 
Duke of Epernon assailed them, but without suc- 
cess ; all the glory of the campaign rested with the 
chief of the league. Epernon then, by the king's de- 
sire, offered the Swiss a free conduct to return home ; 
this they accepted. The Germans, disheartened by 
their abandonment, retreated towards their own 
country : they were constantly harassed on the 
march. Out of all who had entered France, only 
seven thousand regained their native land. As an 
instance of the cruelties inflicted on them, Davila re- 
lates that a woman in Burgundy cut the throats of 
eighteen, who had been left sick in her cottage, to 
revenge the losses she had sustained. 1 
1 Davila, p. 328. 

p 2 



212 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

The defeat of the Germans depressed the spirits of 
the Huguenots and raised the hopes of the league to 
the highest pitch. The King of Navarre returned 
to Rochelle ; Henry III. entered Paris as in triumph, 
arrayed in a coat-of-mail, his helmet on his head. 
The people laughed at him, but not daring to insult 
him personally, all the taunting wit and raillery of 
the Parisians were directed against the Duke of 
Epernon : a book was cried through the streets, en- 
titled " Military Exploits of the Duke of Epernon;" 
on each page, in large type, was printed the mono- 
syllable, " Nothing/' On the other hand, every 
corner of the metropolis, resounded with the praise 
of the Duke of Guise ; he was called the new David, 
a second Moses, the modern Gideon, the deliverer 
of the Catholic people, the prop and pillar of holy 
church. He felt conscious of his popularity, and 
now determined to turn it to advantage, for the king 
having given to Epernon the office of Admiral of 
France and the Governorship of Normandy, both 
vacant by the death of Joyeuse, Guise saw that his 
family had no prospect of obtaining any share of the 
royal favour. 

He summoned his brothers and relatives to meet 
him at Nancy. Hurried away by ambition, they 
resolved to extirpate the Calvinists, to depose the 
king, immure him in a cloister, expel the minions, 
confer on themselves all the high offices and digni- 
ties of the state, and rule the whole government of 
France at their pleasure. 1 They forwarded their de- 

1 The Cardinal of Guise used frequently to say, that he 
should never die happy till he held the king's head between his 
knees, to fit on a monk's cowl. Madame de Montpensier, sister 
to the Guises, wished to use her own scissors to make the cowl. 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 213 

mands in writing* to the kino*- the document was 
signed by themselves, the Cardinal Bourbon, and 
other principal chiefs of the league. They insisted 
that his majesty should cordially and unequivocally 
unite himself to them, for the purpose of rooting out 
the Huguenots, — banish from his court and council 
all persons to be named by the Catholic princes, — 
publish and enforce the decrees of the council of 
Trent, though without prejudice to the privileges of 
the Gallican church, — place in the hands of the con- 
federates such towns and fortresses as they might 
think fit, the crown paying the garrisons and all the 
costs of fortifications, — and finally confiscate all the 
estates of the Huguenots, and apply the proceeds of 
their sale to defray the expenses of the war. De- 
mands so daringly insolent abundantly show the 
depth of moral degradation in which the king was 
sunk. 

Henry III. was now more than ever perplexed. 
He began to be most seriously alarmed at the pro- 
jects of the league, yet still he weakly fancied 
that when the moment of action arrived, their cou- 
rage would fail. The queen-mother purposely con- 
cealed from the kino- the extent to which the con- 
federacy were prepared to carry their criminal ex- 
cesses. Such was her love of power, that she ex- 
ulted at his embarrassment, hoping that he would 
be compelled to follow her own views; thus she 
strove to recover her ancient influence, which had 
been weakened by the ascendency of the favourites. 

The device of Henry III. was three crowns, with the motto, 
Manet ultima cxlo ; the leaguers travestied it into Manet ultima 
claustro. — Notes to the Henriade, 



214 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

Discord reigned in the privy council. Villeroi and 
the other ministers detested Epernon, whose voice 
was dominant in the cabinet. His insolence had 
become insupportable. He had given Villeroi the 
lie in presence of the king, and called him knave 
and scoundrel. He accused Pierre d'Espinac, Arch- 
bishop of Lyons, to his face, with carrying on inces- 
tuous intercourse with his own sister. There could 
be no unity of political action among men thus se- 
vered by mutual jealousy, hatred, and distrust. 
On the other hand, the league acted steadily and in 
concert. 

Paris, in the reign of Henry III., was not pro- 
tected by the vigilant police of modern days. Now 
this constabulary force receives its instructions from 
the minister of the crown ; then it was wholly 
under the control of the municipal authorities. In 
the times of which we write, Paris was encompassed 
with walls, flanked by lofty towers ; the gates closed 
exactly, and the sheriffs kept the keys. The bur- 
gesses were formed into a militia, chose their own 
officers, and were frequently drilled. At the cor- 
ners of the streets large chains were attached to 
rivets in the houses ; these were stretched out on 
the least alarm, and thus all communication from 
one quarter of the capital to another was impeded. 
The people had banners, fixed places of meeting, 
rallying words, and no more was required than the 
beat of a drum to collect a mass of soldiers under 
arms, imperfectly disciplined it is true, but formidable 
from their number. 

The city was divided into sixteen districts. As in 
those days of excitement each individual fancied him- 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 215 

self charged with affairs of state, there was established 
in each of these districts a sort of council, in which 
the interests of the holy union were debated. The 
chief leader of the sectional assemblies reported to 
the general council of the league the result of their 
deliberations, their views, their schemes, the feeling 
of the public, the state of their disposable force, and 
received the orders necessary to be executed for the 
advancement of the common cause. It may be 
readily supposed that the sectional presidents were 
not the least ardent of the council. The proposals 
made by these sixteen demagogues were frequently 
so intemperate, so rash, and so impracticable, that 
they were rejected. As is usual with men of impetu- 
ous characters, eager to rule, they highly resented 
any censure of their opinions ; they murmured, and 
their partisans shared their discontent : too obstinate 
to yield, they determined to act for themselves. 
Thus was formed the celebrated Council of Six- 
teen, so famous in the history of the religious wars 
of France. 1 

The king, under the influence of that weak vacil- 
lation which marked his character, on receiving the 
insolent petition drawn up at Nancy, said he would 
take time to consider its purport, instead of seizing 
all who had signed it, and arraigning them for high- 
treason. Guise, emboldened at the timidity of the 
king, now resolved to strike a decisive blow at the 
crown. He was in constant correspondence with 
the Sixteen. These audacious rebels proposed to seize 
the person of Henry during the celebration of the car- 
nival : they could depend on twenty thousand armed 
1 Esprit de la Ligue, torn. ii. p. 144. 



816 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

men. Their plan was, to attack the Louvre, disarm 
the guards, and murder the ministry and courtiers. 
Guise sent them five commanders ; the Duke of 
Aumale held five hundred cavalry in readiness ; the 
sheriffs, or wardens of the barriers, gave the keys of 
the gates of Saint Denis and Saint Martin to the 
Duke of Aumale, that he might enter the city dur- 
ing the night. 

Nicholas Poulain, one of the conspirators, saved 
the king. He revealed every thing to the chancel- 
lor, named his accomplices, and offered to remain in 
prison till he had fully justified the whole of his 
statements. Doubts were entertained of his veracity, 
and they who secretly favoured Guise declared him 
a suborned calumniator, unworthy of credit. For- 
tunately for the king, he acted on the advice of Pou- 
lain. In full day arms and ammunition were brought 
into the Louvre ; the Swiss were encamped at Lagny, 
on the Marne, close to the capital ; the archers, who 
were divided into four bodies, each of which only 
did duty at the palace once in three months, were all 
summoned. These precautionary measures filled the 
Sixteen with alarm; they knew they were betrayed, 
and trembled for their lives. They sent to Guise, 
urging him to come forthwith to Paris and direct their 
movements. This also the king ascertained, and he 
forbade the Duke to approach the capital under 
pain of his high displeasure. Bellievre carried 
the message, but he did not dare to deliver it in the 
peremptory terms in which it was conceived, from 
dread of being murdered on the spot. Guise remon- 
strated, and Bellievre promised to return, when he 
had again communicated with the king. His ma- 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 217 

jesty then sent a positive order in writing : it was 
forwarded by post, for Anquetil declares, that 
there were not twenty-five crowns in the exchequer 
with which to pay a private courier. Guise, pre- 
tending that the letter never reached him, advanced 
to the capital. 

He entered Paris on the 9th of May, 1588, at 
noon, with only seven companions ; but he had not 
passed half through the city before he was sur- 
rounded by thirty thousand persons. Davila re- 
lates all the circumstances with minute accuracy, 
from the facts furnished by his brother, an eye-wit- 
ness of the scene. " The shouts of the people," he 
says, " sounded to the skies ; nor did they ever cry 
Yive le Roi, as energetically as they now shouted 
Yive Guise. Some saluted him, some gave him 
thanks, some bowed to him, some kissed the hem of 
his garment ; those who could not get near his per - 
son, manifested their joy by gestures and the ac- 
tion of their hands ; some were seen who, adoring 
him as a saint, touched him with their beads, and 
then either kissed them or pressed them against 
their eyes and foreheads : even the women, throwing 
green leaves and flowers from their windows, ho- 
noured and blessed his coming. He, with a smiling 
countenance and gracious air, showed himself affable 
to some in words, to some by courteously returning 
their salutations ; others he requited with kind looks. 
Passing through this throng of people with his hat 
off, he omitted nothing that was calculated to win 
the affections and applause of the people." 1 

Flushed with success, Guise repaired at once to 
1 Davila, p. 337. 



218 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

the palace of the queen-mother : she, astonished at 
his unexpected appearance, received him pale, trem- 
bling, and dismayed. Her gentleman-usher was 
dispatched to the Louvre to announce his arrival to 
the king. The consternation of Henry and his ad- 
visers was extreme. The abbot Del Bene ad- 
vised Henry to receive the duke in the royal closet, 
and there slay him, quoting from Scripture, Percutiam 
pastorem et dispergentur oves, " I will strike the 
shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered ;" but he 
was overruled ; the attempt was deemed too hazard- 
ous, for the whole population of Paris would have 
risen as one man to avenge the murder. 

While the king was balancing in his mind what 
conduct he ought to pursue, the queen-mother ar- 
rived, accompanied by Guise. The populace had 
followed them, and now crowded into the court of 
the Louvre and the adjoining streets. They entered 
the royal chamber. The duke bowed with reverence to 
his majesty, who, in an angry tone, said, " I sent you 
word not to come." Guise mildly answered, " I am 
come to throw myself on the justice of your majesty, 
that I may clear myself of the calumnies cast on me 
by my enemies ; nevertheless I would not have come, 
had I been distinctly told to stay away." The king 
then turned to Bellievre, asking him if he had not de- 
livered his message. Bellievre commenced an expla- 
nation. Henry stopped him short, and addressing 
Guise, said, " That he knew well that he was not 
calumniated by any one ; but that his innocence 
would have been more apparent had not his mere 
presence caused tumult in the capital and disturbed 
the quiet of the government." He was then silent, 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 219 

but his countenance was eloquent, and betrayed what 
was passing in his mind. Catharine read his 
thoughts, and whispered him to be prudent, as the 
mob were in the highest state of enthusiasm and ex- 
asperation. Guise noted the gestures of the mother 
and the son, and fearing lest his life might be at- 
tempted, he feigned to be weary with his journey, 
took his leave, and repaired to his own house, amidst 
the acclamations of the people. 

On the night of that dav he fortified his house, 
and stored it with ammunition. Equal vigilance 
was observed at the Louvre. On the following 
morning Guise again went to the palace, accompa- 
nied by four hundred gentlemen, who carried loaded 
pistols under their cloaks. This was to display his 
strength. In the evening he visited Catharine : the 
king arrived. They went out to walk in the gar- 
dens of the Hotel Soissons, the residence of the queen- 
mother. Guise heard the cheers of the multitude 
outside the walls ; these emboldened him : he de- 
clared to the king, in language respectful but firm, 
that he would insist on his majesty's waging war to 
the knife against the Calvinists, and on the dismissal 
of Epernon, his brother La Yalette, and all persons 
suspected by the league. The feeble monarch, in- 
stead of seizing this insolent subject, who bearded 
hhn in the very heart of his capital, pleaded the 
cause of his favourites by abject apologies, 

Paris, at this time, was full of strangers, who had 
flocked up from the provinces to take part in the in- 
tended rebellion. The king issued an order that they 
should return to their own homes — it was resisted. 
Guise availed himself of this opportunity to circulate 



220 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

a report that government intended to put to death 
one hundred and twenty of the principal Catholics. 
A counterfeit list was framed : the name of Guise 
appeared at the head. The people, incited by the 
priests, became furious. Popular indignation was 
increased by the arrival of the Swiss soldiers from 
Lagny. Then commenced the famous Barricades. 
At the sound of the tocsin the streets were unpaved, 
the chains extended from corner to corner : the Swiss, 
shut up in the square before the church of the In- 
nocents, were unable to make any defence ; thirty- 
six were slain, the remainder surrendered. Guise 
saw himself master of the capital, but wishing to 
demonstrate his moral power, he rode through all 
the quarters of the city, unarmed, with merely a 
truncheon in his hand, and commanded the release 
of all prisoners : he was obeyed ; men called him 
the King of Paris. 

While Guise was acting Henry was deliberating. 
He resolved to send Catharine to negociate with his 
enemy. She was not allowed to ride in her car- 
riage, but compelled to go in a sedan. The duke 
received her with his wonted courtesy, and produced 
his conditions with his wonted insolence. An abso- 
lute conqueror could not have put forth demands 
more exorbitant, He insisted that the king should 
declare him lieutenant-general in all places and 
provinces within his dominions, with the same au- 
thority his father held in the reign of Francis II. ; 
that the states-general should be convened at Paris, 
in which assembly that authority should t be con- 
firmed; that the King of Navarre and all the 
Bourbon princes who adhered to him, should be 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 221 

declared to have forfeited their inheritance to the 
crown ; that taxation should be limited ; that the 
form of government should be denned by certain 
rules, which the king should not be permitted to 
change or modify ; that the absolute and uncon- 
trolled charge of the war against the heretics should 
be confided to him alone, and be prosecuted with 
two armies, one in Poitou, one in Dauphiny ; that 
the royal body-guard of forty-five gentlemen should 
be dismissed; that the command of the regiment 
of guards should be taken from the Duke De Cril- 
Ion, and conferred on an officer possessing the con- 
fidence of the Catholic princes ; that all the for- 
tresses of Picardy should be delivered up to the 
Duke of Aumale, as governor of that province; 
the government of Lvons was claimed for the Duke 
of Xemours, and that of Xormandy for the Duke 
of Elbeuf; six towns were to be placed in the 
hands of the league, in which they might keep 
garrisons and appoint governors ; security was de- 
manded to be given to the Parisians for payment of 
the rents due to the H6tel-de-Ville ; the govern- 
ment of Paris was claimed for the Count of Brissac, 
as well as the office of colonel-general of the in- 
fantry, held by the Duke of Epernon. The last 
stipulation was that the Duke of Mayenne should 
be appointed Admiral of France, and De la Chastre, 
Marshal of France, in the place of the Duke of Biron. 1 
When Catharine went to the interview she was 
prepared to listen to unreasonable demands, but 
this haughty dictation roused her choler. " What," 
said she, " would the people of France say, what 
1 Davila, p. 345. 



222 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

would the sovereigns of Europe think, if the king 
permitted a subject even to forward propositions 
which, if accepted, would despoil him of his crown V 
Guise answered briefly that he would not abate one 
iota of his pretensions, and that he was resolved to 
lose his life, or secure religion and the rights of his 
family. 

With this answer Catharine returned to her son : 
it was resolved that Henry should save himself by 
flight. To effect this object the queen-mother visit- 
ed Guise on the following morning, and kept him 
in protracted conversation, that he might have no 
opportunity of personally investing the Louvre. 
Meneville, one of the duke's attendants, entered 
the apartment, and whispered in his ear, " The 
king has fled from Paris." He started up dismayed, 
and reproachfully said to Catharine, " Ah, ma- 
dam ! I am undone ; while your majesty has been 
detaining me, the king has departed to plot my 
ruin/' She, versed in all the arts of dissimulation, 
replied, that she did not credit the intelligence, and 
then took her leave. Henry rode to Chartres, where 
he was received with every mark of affection and 
respect. 

It clearly was the intention of Guise to have ar- 
rested the king, and his warmest admirers admitted 
that he had failed in his wonted prudence and 
wariness. He had gone too far to retreat, and he 
ought boldly to have ventured the last extremity on 
the day of barricades. The celebrated Alexander 
Farnese, Duke of Parma, condemned his undecided 
policy, saying, that whoever draws his sword against 
his prince, should throw away the scabbard. How- 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 223 

ever, though the grand prize had escaped him, Guise 
took every precaution to secure the advantages he 
had gained. Master of the capital, he established a 
new municipal administration, and named its officers. 
He went to the first president of the parliament, 
begging him to convene that assembly ; but Harlai 
answered, " It is to be lamented, when the servant 
drives away the master : my soul I confide to God, 
my heart belongs to the king, my body I offer to the 
wicked." Guise insisted that the parliament should 
pass certain measures which he indicated. " When 
the majesty of the prince is violated," retorted Har- 
lai, " the magistrate no longer wields any lawful 
authority." His colleague, Erisson, did not show 
the same firmness ; whether through weakness or 
secret attachment to the league, he complied with 
the wishes of the duke. Guise secured the Bastille, 
and took Saint Cloud, Vincennes, Lagny, Charen- 
ton, and other towns, by which he commanded the 
free navigation of the Seine and Marne up to 
Paris. 

While these events were passing in the capital 
Epernon was in Xormandy, whither he had gone 
to secure the important towns of Havre and Eouen. 
When he heard of the rebellion he hastened to re- 
join the king, who received him coldly. Henry 
had already selected this faithful officer as the first 
victim demanded by Guise. Epernon at once re- 
signed the government of -Normandy, which the 
king bestowed on Francis of Bourbon, Duke of 
Montpensier : by this trimming policy he hoped to 
gain two points — the approbation of the league, for 
having dismissed the favourite, and the exclusion of 



224 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

any member of the house of Lorraine from the com- 
mand of Normandy. He only, in fact, disgusted a 
friend without conciliating an enemy, — the inevit- 
able result of all half-measures. Epernon, accom- 
panied by his friend, the Abbot Del Bene, travelled 
rapidly to Angouleirie : he secured its castle. From 
that position he could communicate with the towns 
of Languedoc, held by Marshal D'Anville, cor- 
respond with the Huguenot leaders, and, if pressed, 
retire easily into Provence. This movement discon- 
certed the king. Villeroi, by his orders, wrote to 
Tagens, who commanded in Angouleme, neither to 
obey or receive Epernon : it was too late. 

Negociations for peace were now opened between 
the king and the league : it was concluded on con- 
ditions nearly similar to the demands of the Guises, 
drawn up at Nancy. It was stipulated that the 
king should declare himself head of the Catholic 
league, swearing to take up arms, and never lay 
them down till Calvinism was exterminated ; that a 
public edict should oblige all princes, peers of France, 
lords and officers of the crown, all towns, colleges, 
and corporations, even the whole people, to take an 
oath to the same effect, and bind themselves never to 
suffer any one to reign who did not profess the 
Catholic religion; that an amnesty for the past 
should be granted to the leaguers for all acts they 
might have done ; that for the future none should 
hold any office, place, or dignity in the realm, who 
did not subscribe to the profession of faith established 
by the Sorbonne ; that the Duke of Guise should 
have a , patent to command all the forces in the 
kingdom, and that the states-general should be as- 



REIGX OF HEXRY III. 225 

sembled at Blois, in the month of October next en- 
suing, (1588,) to cause the edict of the Catholic 
union to be sworn to, to accept the decrees of the 
council of Trent, and confirm the authority granted 
to the Duke of Guise. Such were the principal 
points of the edict of July ; the remainder merely 
related to governorships of towns and provinces. i 

The Princes of Lorraine had now only one difficul- 
ty to surmount, — the command of a majority in the 
states-general, about to be convened at Blois. Could 
they succeed in that object the head of their family 
would hold his power by the will of the nation, and 
the king could never deprive him of it without im- 
pugning the national vote. Guise already swayed 
all the mighty influence of the court : he now strug- 
gled to secure the representatives of the people ; thus 
doubly armed, he could easily bid defiance to the 
crown. To some he gave money ; others were pro- 
mised military commands ; some were allured by 
the prospect of civil appointments : religious zeal, 
ambition, avarice, all were appealed to. Guise was 
master of the assembly before it met. 

In the interval, Yilleroi, eager to w^reak his ven- 
geance on Epernon, had sent orders for his arrest at 
Anoouleme. The king had indeed sanctioned this 
measure, but he had commanded that the duke's 
life was not to be endangered in the attempt. Vil- 
leroi, however, dispatched the order unconditionally. 
It was obeyed. Epernon defended himself with 
dauntless courage ; many of his servants were slain ; 
his wife was arrested in church, while attending 
mass : ultimately the duke triumphed. 

1 Davila, p. 354. 

Q 



226 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

When this news reached the king he was highly 
i licensed, accusing Villeroi of having betrayed him, 
to gratify his personal hatred of his former rival. 
The minister was dismissed : the other members of 
the cabinet shared his disgrace. Monthelon suc- 
ceeded Chiverni as chancellor. The new secretaries 
of state were men of reputation and approved royal- 
ists. Under these circumstances the second States 
of Blois opened on the 16th of October, 1588. 

The scene was grand and imposing : every exer- 
tion had been made to give solemnity to the meet- 
ing. Henry comported himself with that majestic 
dignity which he was wont to assume when in 
presence of the representatives of the nation. He 
spoke with singular eloquence; and Davila, who 
was present, eulogizes the modulation of his voice, 
his impressive action, and graceful delivery. He 
commenced by declaring his earnest desire for the 
good and welfare of his people, pointed out the em- 
barrassing condition into which intestine discord had 
reduced the crown, exhorted all to lay aside per- 
sonal prejudices, to forget their enmities, and avoid 
the bitterness of faction; he called upon them to 
provide remedies for the public exigencies, to unite 
sincerely under his sceptre, to abandon all innova- 
tions, and denounce all leagues and confederacies, 
both within and without the kingdom, which had 
disturbed their lawful and natural sovereign, im- 
peded the course of government, interrupted the 
administration of justice, and afflicted all his loyal 
subjects. He promised to forget the past, but de- 
clared that he would treat any future cabal against 
his authority as high-treason. He pledged himself 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 227 

to put down heresy, to maintain the privileges of 
the nobility, and reduce the burdens of the peo- 
ple. He earnestly besought every member of the 
states to aid him in carrying these his sincere wishes 
into effect. He concluded by sternly saying, that 
whoever sacrificed the national weal to personal am- 
bition, and sought to promote his private fortunes 
by treachery and duplicity, would have to answer 
for his perfidiousness at the judgment-seat of God, 
and brand his name with eternal infamy. 

This speech stung the Duke of Guise to the 
quick : the allusions were too pointed to be mis- 
taken. The king went a step further. He deter- 
mined to print his speech. The Archbishop of 
Lyons vainly remonstrated against its publication. 
It produced a powerful effect among those who 
merely wished the maintenance of the Roman Ca- 
tholic religion, but disclaimed all political inter- 
ference with the prerogative. The Lorraine princes, 
feeling it might weaken their influence, determined 
to risk every thing on the hazard of a die. Their 
language increased in boldness : there was no longer 
any reserve. The Duke of Guise, having demanded 
that Orleans should be given up to the league, and 
being refused, had the audacity to say, " that he 
would hold it in spite of the king's teeth." His sister, 
the Duchess of Montpensier, always carried a pair 
of gold scissors at her side, boasting that she in- 
tended to use them to make a monacal crown for 
Henry, when he was incarcerated in a monastery. 
This was the treatment received by Chilperic from 
Charles Mart el and his son Pepin, the latter of whom 
assumed the title of King of France. Guise was 

Q 2 



228 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

more than suspected of intending to follow the ex- 
ample of these ancient mayors of the palace. Henry 
was not ignorant of this design. 

At the second meeting of the states Guise pro- 
posed to register the decrees of the council of Trent, 
by which he would have assured the exclusion of 
the house of Bourbon. In this he failed. The 
clergy feared to place in jeopardy the rights and im- 
munities of the Gallican church ; the nobility dreaded 
any extension of papal power over their temporali- 
ties ; the deputies of the third estate were divided in 
opinion. The resolution, moved by the duke, was 
postponed to further consideration. 

He was not discouraged by this defeat : keeping 
his main object in view, he proposed that the King 
of Navarre and all his family, as guilty, or sus- 
pected of heresy, should be formally declared inca- 
pable of ever succeeding to the throne. All the 
clergy adopted this motion, except the Archbishop 
of Bourges, who deemed it unbecoming to pass the 
vote, considering that Henry III. was still in the 
prime of life, and that, in the course of nature, there 
was every possibility of his having issue ; but this 
opposition was set aside, and the States demanded 
that the vote should receive the royal sanction, and 
be passed into a fundamental law. Henry evaded 
compliance, by sending the deputies a protest for- 
warded to him by the King of Navarre, in which 
he denounced the assembly of Blois as a packed and 
exclusive meeting, composed entirely of his enemies : 
he denied its right to assume the title or exercise 
the functions of the states-general, as none of its 
members were Calvinists : he rebutted the charge of 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 229 

heresy, as he had always been ready, and still was 
ready to submit his opinions to the scrutiny of a 
national or general council. Finally, he protested 
against beino* condemned without being- allowed to 
defend himself. The states answered that the pope 
had excommunicated the King of Xavarre, and de- 
clared him a relapsed heretic : against that sentence 
there was no appeal. 

Henry thus pressed, and finding that he could 
neither conquer the inflexible obstinacy of the league, 
nor evade their demands, agreed to the general vote, 
and said that he would give instructions to frame a 
decree for carrying it into effect; but, in the mean 
time, he persuaded the pope to give absolution to 
the Prince of Conti and the Count of Soissons, sons 
of the Prince of Conde, who was slain at Jarnac. 
Thus he outwitted Guise, for this act restored these 
two Bourbon princes to the right of succession to 
the throne. 

An event now occurred which diverted the atten- 
tion of the states from civil war to the foreign policy 
of the kingdom. Charles Emanuel, Duke of Savoy, 
whose family had pretensions to the Marquisate of 
Saluzzo, then incorporated with France, availed him- 
self of the insurrection at Paris, to seize Carmagnola, 
and other strong-holds in that state. He pretended, 
however, to keep them in trust, not in possession, ex- 
pressing his fears that the Huguenots of Dauphiny 
were about to seize on the marquisate, and intro- 
duce heresy : he engaged to restore every thing, 
when that danger was removed. 1 This proceeding 

1 That the Duke of Savoy intended to make a permanent 
conquest of the marquisate appears certain, from the statement 



230 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

touched the national pride of the French nobles, and 
the voice of patriotism was heard amidst the din of 
religious discord. The king industriously circulated 
a rumour that the Duke of Savoy, who had married 
a daughter of Philip II. had been instigated by 
Guise : Guise charged the act to the connivance of 
the king. There were murmurs on all sides. Henry 
proposed to make war on Savoy, which Guise dared 
not resist, though Emanuel was his secret ally, for 
opposition on his part would have shown a dispo- 
sition to submit to a national affront. He, there- 
fore, urged this measure, still insisting on raising 
other armies with which to attack the Calvinists. 
But the factious spirit of the states voted an im- 
mediate and considerable reduction of taxes. They 
willed the end, but refused to provide the means. 
Henry now determined to cut a knot which he could 
not untie. 

He summoned Marshal D'Aumont, a brave sol- 
dier, and Nicolas D'Angenay, an able lawyer, to a 
private council, and told them that he intended to 
put the Duke of Guise to death. The former ap- 
proved this resolution; the latter advised that he 
should be imprisoned, and tried before the regular 
tribunals for treason. The king then sent for Colonel 
Alfonso Corso, his confidential friend, and Louis, 
Lord of Rambouillet, brother to D'Angenay. They 
resolved that Guise should be forthwith slain : the 
difficulty was to carry the design into execution. 

of Davila. He says that the duke caused a medal to he stamp- 
ed, on which a centaur was seen trampling a crown under foot, 
with the motto a Opportune," which implied that he would 
avail himself of the intestine troubles of France to recover what 
had belonged to his ancestors, (p. 265.) 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 231 

Henry selected Grillon, captain of the guard, as the 
instrument of his vengeance : he was a fierce, bold 
man, and a personal enemy to the Duke of Guise ; 
but his sense of honour was keen. He thus an- 
swered the king : " Sire, I am your majesty's most 
faithful and devoted servant, but I make profession 
to be a soldier and chevalier : if you command me to 
challenge the Duke of Guise, and fight him hand to 
hand, I am ready at this instant to lay down my 
life for your service ; but that I should serve as his 
executioner, when his majesty's justice condemns 
him to die, is an act which suits not one of my con- 
dition, nor will I ever do it." The king, though 
disconcerted, was not surprised, for he knew Grillon 
to be fearless, and a plain, honest man ; all he now 
required was his silence. "I am a servant of ho- 
nour and fidelity," replied the captain of the guard, 
" and one who would never disclose the secret inte- 
rests of his master " then bowing, he took his leave. 
Henry next applied to Lognac, formerly a partisan 
of Joyeuse, slain at Coutras, by whom he had been 
introduced to the court : he promised to do the deed 
effectually. 

On the evening of the 22nd of December, 1588, 
the guards of the palace were doubled. Henry or- 
dered his nephew, the Grand Prior of France, to 
make a match at tennis, for the next day, with the 
Prince of Jainville, eldest son of the Duke of Guise, 
that he might be unprepared to give any assistance 
to his father. On the following morning Guise pre- 
sented himself at the palace, when Larchant, one of 
the officers of the guard, presented him a petition, 
praying that his men might receive their arrears of 



232 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

pay ; and on pretence of receiving an answer fixing 
the day, he accompanied the duke to the hall-door, 
which was closed as soon as they had passed through, 
the soldiers making a long lane to the bottom of the 
stairs. At the same moment the gates of the castle 
were closed. Pelicart, secretary to the Duke of 
Guise, suspecting foul play, sent him a note by one 
of his pages, couched in these words, " My lord, 
save yourself, or you are dead ;" but it never reached 
him. While in one of the ante-rooms the duke al- 
most fainted, and some restoratives were adminis- 
tered to him. The secretary, Revol, then told him 
to proceed to the royal closet : he entered the saloon 
of reception, usually crowded with courtiers, but he 
saw only eight persons. As he raised up his hand 
to lift the hangings which screened the king's pri- 
vate apartment, Saint Malin struck him in the 
throat with a dagger : he was immediately assailed 
by the others ; he endeavoured to draw his sword, 
but it never quitted its scabbard. Lognac gave him 
the last blow, when he fell, and died without utter- 
ing a word. 1 

1 Davila, page 370. The following account of this assas- 
sination is taken from the notes to the Henriade. The Duke 
of Guise was slain on Friday, the 23rd of December, 1588, at 
eight o'clock in the morning. The historians say, that he was 
seized with a fain tn ess in the royal ante-chamber, having passed 
the night with a lady of the court, the Marchioness of Noir- 
moutier. All who have written about this death say that this 
prince, as soon as he entered the council-chamber, began to 
suspect his fate by the movements he observed. D'Aubigne 
relates that he met Espinac, Archbishop of Lyons, his confiden- 
tial friend, who said to him, in presence of Larchant, one of the 
captains of the guard, alluding to a new coat the duke wore, 
' That dress is too light for this season, you should have put 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 233 

Henry was not satisfied with slaying the chief of 
the league ; he arrested the Cardinal of Guise, the 
Archbishop of Lyons, the old Cardinal of Bourbon, 
the Prince of Jainville, the Dukes of Elbeuf and 
Nemours, and the Duchess of Nemours, mother of 
the Guises. Many others of inferior rank were also 
seized, among whom was Pelicart : all his papers 
were taken from him ; the foreign correspondence 
of Guise was brought to light, and it proved that he 
had received two millions of ducats from Spain. 

When the deed was known, Henry ordered the 
gates to be opened : his chamber was soon crowded ; 
he threw aside his timidity, and displayed the en- 
ergy he had shown at Jarnac and Moncontour. 
" Henceforward," he said, " I wish my subjects to 
know that I will be obeyed : I will punish the 
leaders of insurrections, and those who aid them : I 
will be king not merely in words, but in deeds; 
and it will be no difficult matter for me to wield the 
sword as I did in my youth." He then abruptly 
quitted the apartment with fierce gestures, and hur- 
ried to Catharine, who was sick in bed : " Madam," 

on one stiff with fur." The words, pronounced in accents of 
fear, confirmed the suspicion of Guise. However, he entered 
the royal ante-chamber, which led to the closet, the door of 
which had been walled up. The duke, ignorant of this, was 
about to lift up the tapestry which covered it, when several 
Gascons, called the Forty-five, struck him with daggers, 
which they had received from the king himself. The assassins 
were La Bastide, Monsivry, Saint-Malin, Saint-Gaudin, Saint- 
Capautal, Halfrenas, Herbelade, and Lognac, their captain. 
Monsivry gave him the first blow : he was followed by Lognac, 
Bastide, <kc. They show in the castle of Blois a stone in the 
wall against which he attempted to support himself, when fall- 
ing, as the first marked with his blood. 



234 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

said he, " the King of Paris is no more ; I am now 
King of France/' "I fear," replied his mother, 
" that you will soon be king of nothing." 

Henry dreaded nothing but the censure of the 
pope. He sent the secretary, Revol, to the Venetian 
ambassador, to justify his conduct, knowing that the 
republic had great influence with his holiness. He 
himself hastened to Morosini, the cardinal legate, 
and succeeded in averting his displeasure. Thus en- 
couraged, he ordered the execution of the Cardinal 
of Guise, who submitted to his fate with heroic 
courage. ! Alfonso Corso was directed to seize the 
Duke of Mayenne at Lyons, but he escaped to Dijon. 
The Duke of Nemours bribed his keepers and fled. 
The Duchess of Nemours was released on account of 
her age. 

Henry of Lorraine, Duke of Guise, was one of the 
most remarkable men of his time. To the glory of 
an illustrious birth, he, by his own personal qua- 
lities, added lustre to his distinguished family. He 
possessed a vigorous intellect, a far-seeing judg- 
ment, a head to contrive and a hand to execute : he 
was affable, liberal, persevering, and eminently 
skilled in all those arts which win popularity, being 
equally a favourite with the highest and lowest 
classes. His personal appearance was highly pre- 
possessing ; he was a model of manly beauty, of 

1 The bodies of the two Lorraine princes were buried in 
quick-lime, and in a few hours all the flesh was consumed. The 
bones were secretly deposited in a place only known to the king 
and his most devoted friends. Henry seems to have been afraid 
lest the priests should have converted them into relics.— Davi la, 
p. 373. 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 235 

gracious aspect, elegant deportment, and athletic 
frame of body. The soldiers admired his courage, 
the clergy lauded his zeal for the church, the women 
were fascinated by his graceful manners. 1 But 
an insatiable ambition perverted all his virtues ; re- 
ligion was a cloak under which he masked his crimi- 
nal designs, and he is stained with the mean vice of 
hypocrisy. To compass his private ends, he became 
the pensioner and the tool of Spain, and hazarded 
the independence of his country to seize its sceptre. 
His hands were red with the blood of Saint Bartho- 
lomew's day, nor can his indignities to the dead body 
of Coligny be in any degree extenuated. If he 
sought to punish the suspected murderer of his father, 
revenge should have ceased when the victim was 
slain. Henry III. is not to be justified for the 
assassination of his rebellious subject; the answer 
of Grillon is his condemnation : still it is certain that 
the popularity of the duke was so immense, that a 
judical conviction was almost impossible, and if he 
took the life of Guise, it was to save his own. A 
rebellion fomented by causes purely political, may be 
suppressed by the regular process of law, but when it 
assumes a religious character, severer instruments 
must be used. Fanaticism will neither listen to jus- 
tice nor reason ; it appeals to the passions ; and as it 
employs violence for its weapon, it can only be sub- 
dued by severity and force. 

At the closing of the States of Blois, Catharine of 
Medicis died, in the seventieth year of her age, on 

1 The Marechale de Retz, speaking of him and his family, 
said, u lis avoient si bonne mine, ces Princes Lorrains, qu'aupres 
d'eux, les autres prmces paroissoient peuple." 



236 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

the 5th of January, 1589. She had survived three 
sons, and, as she descended into the tomb, saw the 
sceptre falling from the hands of the fourth. Durino- 
thirty years this remarkable woman played a dis- 
tinguished part, not only in the policy of France, 
but of Europe. She was better versed in diplomacy 
than female intrigue, and is said to have been vir- 
tuous in an unchaste court. By adopting the fatal 
plan of attempting to govern by balancing parties, 
and constituting herself their umpire, she lost the con- 
fidence both of Catholics and Calvinists, and outlived 
her popularity. Her talents were of a high order, 
and her moral courage was admired both by friends 
and enemies. On her death-bed, she advised her 
son to reconcile himself with the King of Navarre 
and the Princes of Bourbon. 

News of the tragedy acted at Blois reached Paris, 
the day after the assassination of Guise. Popular 
indignation vented itself in the bitterest and fiercest 
execration. Sermons were preached on the martyr- 
dom of the duke ; the king was compared to Herod. 
Intelligence of the death of the Cardinal of Guise 
soon followed : the outcries of fury w^ere now louder 
and deeper ; Henry was denounced as a favourer of 
heresy, an enemy to holy church, who had dyed his 
hands in the blood of a bishop. Priest and layman 
panted for revenge. The statues of the king were 
broken, the royal arms effaced ; he was called simply 
Henry of Yalois. The Sorbonne declared that he 
had forfeited the crown, and that his subjects not 
only might, but ought to cast off their allegiance. l 

1 The Sorbonne were not unanimous. Jehan Fabray, dean 
of the college, a man of profound learning, Robert Vauvarin 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 237 

This resolution was forwarded to Rome for the 
sanction of the pope. 

The council of Sixteen took advantage of this 
excitement to make themselves complete masters of 
Paris. They arrested Harlai, the first president, and 
all the counsellors of Paris, ' except Peter Seguier and 
James Augustus de Thou, who escaped. Barnabe 
Brisson, a man of learning, replaced Harlai. One 
hundred and sixty members were assembled on the 
13th of January, 1589, who published a decree, 
binding themselves to combine together for the de- 
fence of the Catholic religion, the safety of Paris, and 
such other cities as might join the league, — to op- 
pose those who had assassinated the Catholic princes, 
avenge their murder, and defend the liberty and 
dignity of the states of France against all persons 
whomsoever, without any distinction. 

and Denis Sorbin, two of the senior doctors, argued, that even 
if all alleged against the king were true, he could not be said to 
have forfeited the kingdom, and they denied that it was lawful 
for the people to refuse their obedience. This moderate counsel 
was overruled by the younger and more fanatical priests. — Da* 
vita, p. 378. 

1 On this occasion, Bussy-le-Clerc, originally a fencing-mas- 
ter, now chief of the Sixteen, and Governor of the Bastille, en- 
tered the grand hall of parliament with fifty of his statellites. 
He presented a petition, or rather a peremptory order, to com- 
pel the senate to disavow the royal family. On their refusal, he 
incarcerated in the Bastille all who opposed his party ; he al- 
lowed them no other fare but bread and water, to compel them 
to purchase their liberty. On this account he was called the 
Grand-Penitentiary of Parliament. His real name was simply 
Le Clerc, but when the troubles of the times raised him into 
some importance, he took the surname of Bussy, as though he 
had become as redoubtable as Bussy d'Amboise. He also called 
himself Bussy Grande-Puissance.— Notes to the Henriade. 



238 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

The signal of rebellion, given in the capital, was 
responded to by most of the provinces. Orleans, the 
strong-hold of Calvinism, at the beginning of the re- 
ligious wars, joined the league ; Chartres, which 
had received the fugitive king after the day of the 
barricades, followed its example. All the towns in 
the Isle of France made common cause with the 
Parisians. Pouen, w T ith the greater part of the par- 
liament of Normandy, and all the cities of that pro- 
vince, except Caen, abandoned their allegiance. 
Picardy rose in arms. Excepting Chalons, all 
Champagne declared against the king. Dijon, the 
capital of Burgundy, w T ith its parliament, revolted. 
In Languedoc, Toulouse and its parliament joined 
the league. The Duke of Mercoeur, Governor of 
Brittany, though brother-in-law to the king, aban- 
doned him. Marseilles, Bordeaux, and Lyons de- 
fied the royal authority. City was opposed to city, 
castle to castle. France was rent asunder by do- 
mestic fury, and parties assumed the titles of Hu- 
guenots and Catholics, Royalists and Leaguers, 
White Forces and Holy Union, Navarrists and 
Lorrainists. 

The king endeavoured to appease the indignation 
of the country, by proving the treason of the Duke 
of Guise. Writings, letters, and accounts were ex- 
hibited, showing the correspondence carried on with 
Spain and Savoy, the terms of the alliance, and 
the amount of monies remitted to arm the league 
against the throne. But the people were not in a 
temper to listen to evidence ; they were the slaves 
of their unbridled passions : they wanted not truth, 
but vengeance. Neither was Henry more successful 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 239 

in his attempt to appease the anger of the pope. 
When his holiness heard of the murder of the Car- 
dinal of Guise, and the imprisonment of the Cardi- 
nal of Bourbon and Archbishop of Lyons, he gave 
way to the most violent impulses of rage, declaring 
that the kino- had violated all laws, human and 
divine, and ruthlessly trampled under foot the privi- 
leges of holy church. He refused to listen to any 
explanation offered by the French ambassadors, and 
determined to appoint a special council of cardinals 
to investigate the affairs of France. Sixtus V. 
hoped to avail himself of this opportunity to revive 
the pretensions of his predecessors over the tempo- 
ralities of princes. 

In the mean time the affairs of the league acquired 
stabilitv, and assumed an organized character. The 
Duchess of Montpensier wrote to her brother, the 
Duke of Mayenne, to come to Paris : he did so, and 
was appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom. 
The provisional government was vested in a council 
of forty of the most distinguished leaguers ; the Six- 
teen retained special authority in the capital. The 
king made overtures to Mayenne; they were re- 
jected. He next sent the Bishop of Mans to Rome, 
to demand absolution for the murder of Guise. The 
mission was unsuccessful. It was vainly argued 
that the cardinal was a traitor ; the pope answered 
that evidence of the fact ought to have been for- 
warded to him, and that he would have awarded 
punishment. It was rejoined, that prelates, guilty 
of rebellion, were amenable to the civil tribunals and 
the royal prerogative, guaranteed by the privileges 
of the Gallican church. This plea Sixtus treated as 



240 REIGN OF HENRY III, 

an insult to himself, and a contempt of the pontifical 
supremacy. The Venetian and Florentine ambassa- 
dors interceded in behalf of Henry, and the Bishop 
of Mans, encouraged by their support, presented a 
very humble and submissive petition, praying for 
the absolution of his royal master. The request was 
evaded ; his holiness stipulating for the release of the 
Cardinal of Bourbon and the Archbishop of Lyons, 
as a preliminary measure, as the only proof he would 
receive of the king's repentance. When asked to re- 
voke and nullify the sentence of the Sorbonne, he 
admitted that their decree was presumptuous, and 
merited his censure ; but he refused to interpose his 
authority till Henry had given him full satisfac- 
tion. 

While these negociations were pending, the league 
dispatched the Abbot of Orbais to Rome, to frus- 
trate the exertions of the Bishop of Mans. He was 
well received by Sixtus, whose policy was to keep 
both parties in dispute, that he might profit by their 
quarrels. Henry, however, prevailed on Morosini, 
the legate, to write to the Duke of Mayenne, and 
request him to accept a truce. It was refused. 

The position of the king was now most embarrass- 
ing. He held a sceptre he could not wield ; he issued 
orders which none would execute. On one side of 
the Loire, the league ruled ; on the other, the King 
of Navarre governed. Henry stood isolated in the 
centre of his kingdom. He had neither money, 
friends, nor armies. Under these circumstances, 
Epernon was received back into favour, and he ad- 
vised Henry to negociate with the King of Navarre. 
To unite with the Huguenot Bourbon shocked the 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 241 

scrupulous conscience of the Catholic Valois ; but 
there was no alternative, unless he abandoned his 
throne. At length he consented, and his ancient 
favourite went to the camp of the Calvinists. The 
legate Morosini soon heard of this arrangement, and 
reproached the king with seeking an alliance with 
htretics. Henry denied that he had given any de- 
finitive instructions to Epernon, but prayed the 
legate to consider the difficulties by which he was 
surrounded, — the refusal of the pope to give him ab- 
solution, — the hostility of the league, — the armed 
rebellion of the Duke of Mayenne, — and the 
exhausted state of the treasury. " If," said he, 
" the pope will not give me his protection, and my 
Catholic subjects attempt to dethrone me, can I be 
blamed if I seek shelter with the Calvinists ? It is 
a case of necessity, not of will." 

Morosini remained with the king, thinking, to 
use the words of Davila, " that the assistance of 
the physician was most needful, where the danger 
of the disease was greatest." Mendoza, the Spanish 
ambassador, as soon as the mission of Epernon was 
divulged, went to Paris, and resided there as am- 
bassador to the lords of the league. A truce was at 
once concluded between Henry and the King of 
Navarre, for one year, on the following conditions : 
That the public exercise of the Catholic religion 
should be restored in all places held by the Hugue- 
nots, without any exception ; that the goods of the 
clergy should be restored to them, and all prisoners 
liberated; that the King of Navarre should serve 
the King of France personally, with four thousand 
foot and twelve hundred horse, whenever he might 

R 



242 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

be commanded, — and that the cities, towns, and 
other places held by his party, should observe the 
laws and constitutions of the kingdom, obey the par- 
liaments, the king's magistrates, and receive all the 
ordinances which the present king had made, or 
might make. On the other hand, it was agreed 
that the King of Navarre should be put in posses- 
sion of Saumur, and be allowed freely to retain it, 
as securing a passage over the Loire ; but he was 
bound to deliver it up at the king's pleasure. 1 

Morosini now felt it his duty to abandon the court, 
but Henry persuaded him to carry a written treaty 
of peace to Mayenne, which contained the following 
terms. The king offered the Duke of Lorraine the 
cities of Toul, Metz, and Yerdun, under the control 
of government ; Mayenne was promised the govern- 
ment of Burgundy, with the reversion to his son, 
one hundred thousand crowns in ready money, and 
an annual pension of forty thousand crowns ; the 
young Duke of Guise was to obtain the govern- 
ment of Champagne, Saint Dizier, and Rocroy, 
twenty thousand crowns annually for himself, and 
thirty thousand crowns of ecclesiastical revenue for 
one of his brothers, who was to be raised to the 
rank of cardinal ; the Duke of Nevers was to re- 
ceive the government of Lyons, and ten thousand 
crowns annually ; the Duke of Aumale, Saint Eprit 
de Rue, and ten thousand crowns annually ; the 
Chevalier D' Aumale, his brother, the generalship of 
the infantry, and twenty thousand francs pension ; 
and the Duke of Elbeuf, the government of Poitiers, 
and an annuity of ten thousand crowns. 2 

Concessions so ample prove the sincere desire of 
1 Davila, p. 391. 2 lb. p. 309 



REIGX OF HENRY III. 243 

peace entertained by the king, but the excess of 
liberality was mistaken for fear. Mayenne rejected 
the terms offered : he counted on the support of 
Rome : he was promised men and money from 
Spain and Savoy. 

War was instantly commenced. The Duke of 
Montpensier, the royalist Governor of Xormandy. 
met with success. On the other side, Mayenne cap- 
tured Vendome, having corrupted the commandant. 
In the mean time the two kings were approaching 
each other, and at last met outside the walls of 
Tours, at a spot called Plessis-les-Tours, on the 30th 
of April, 1589. Bourbon alighted from his horse, 
and kneeling down, would have embraced the feet 
of Valois, but the latter clasped him in his arms. 1 
All former enmities were forgotten, and they en- 
tered the city together, amidst the acclamations of 
the soldiers and inhabitants. Calvinists and Catho- 
lics united as brothers, vowing; to devote their con- 
solidated strength against the league. 

Mayenne advanced against Tours, hoping to se- 

1 It was with considerable reluctance that the King of Na- 
varre went to this interview. He feared treachery. 3Iany of 
his counsellors thought Henry would take his life to purchase 
his own absolution from the pope. He wrote to his confiden- 
tial friend Du Plessis Mornay in these terms: Ci The ice is 
broken, not without many warnings that if I went I should be 
a dead man : I passed the water recommending myself to God." 
Mornay answered, ft Sire, you have done what you ought, but 
what none of you counsellors would have advised." Such was 
the apprehension of the King of Navarre, that Sully says he 
halted about two leagues from Tours, and took the opinion of 
the gentlemen who accompanied him, whether to proceed or 
return. Sully claims the honour of having persuaded Bourbon 
to trust the good faith of Valois. 

R 2 



244 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

cure the person of the king by a sudden attack. 
On his route he defeated and took prisoner the 
Count of Brienne. He surprised the suburbs, but 
Henry defended himself with courage and judg- 
ment. While victory was yet doubtful, the King 
of Navarre arrived with his forces, and decided the 
fortune of the day ; but Mayenne, though driven 
from the field, retreated in good order. In this bat- 
tle Saint Malm, one of the assassins of the Duke of 
Guise, was slain : the preachers of the league as- 
scribed his death to the interposition of a particular 
providence, and augured from this miracle the speedy 
and absolute triumph of their party. 

The royalists crossed the Loire, and marched on- 
wards in the direction of Paris. When they reached 
Pcissy, they were joined by the foreign auxiliaries, 
whom the king had enlisted under his banners. 
These consisted of ten thousand Swiss and four 
thousand Germans, which, added to the detach- 
ments of the Dukes of Longueville and Montpensier, 
of the Baron de Givry and the King of Navarre, 
amounted to forty-two thousand fighting men. The 
terror excited by this army reduced all the towns in 
the neighbourhood of the capital into submission, 
and though Saint Cloud shut its gates, they were 
speedily forced. Consternation reigned in Paris ; 
all the passages of the Seine were stopped, and the 
approaches to the bridges fell into the power of the 
royalists. Mayenne could only muster eight thou- 
sand infantry and eighteen hundred cavalry. Henry, 
in person, begirt the faubourg Saint Honore, and all 
that side of the Louvre which borders on the river : 
the King of Navarre besieged the line from the fau- 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 245 

bourg of Saint Martin to that of Saint Germain. 
The fate of the rebels seemed inevitable, but fanati- 
cism extricated the league from its impending dan- 
ger. 

Within the walls of the beleagured city the priests 
and Jesuits endeavoured to inspire the people with 
fortitude, by the promise of speedy miracles. An 
avenger was confidently predicted, and the predic- 
tion itself raised up an instrument for its own ful- 
filment. James Clement, a friar of the order of 
Saint Dominick, born of obscure parentage, in the 
village of Sorbone, near to Sens, and only 
twenty-two years of age, maddened by religi- 
ous frenzy, determined to assassinate Henry III. 
He made no secret of his design, and his com- 
panions, to ridicule his constant boastings, called 
him Captain Clement. It was boldly announced 
from every pulpit that it was justifiable to slay a 
tyrant, and at length Clement avowed his intention 
to the prior of his order. He communicated it to 
the Dukes of Mayenne and Aumale, who did not 
disapprove of it : the council of Sixteen applauded 
it. Clement was promised a cardinal's hat, if he 
did the deed and escaped ; in the event of his being 
seized and executed, he was assured of canonization. 
The Duchess of Montpensier sacrificed all that a 
woman holds most dear to this young libertine, on 
the night that his resolution was confirmed. 

In order that the assassin might -have certain ac- 
cess to the king, the first president, Harlai, a pri- 
soner in the Bastille, gave him a letter of introduc- 
tion, and the Count of Brienne, a prisoner-of-war, 
furnished him with a passport. They believed that 



246 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

Clement was the bearer of intelligence favourable to 
the royal cause. He showed his credentials to 
James de la Guesle, the king's attorney-general, who 
acted as auditor of the camp. It was evening when 
the murderer arrived : on the following morning, 
the 1st of August, 1589, he was introduced to the 
king. His letters being delivered, he was desired to 
disclose his information: Henry approached him; 
Clement pretended to draw another paper from his 
sleeve, instead of which he plunged a large knife 
in the abdomen of his victim, and buried the blade 
up to the haft. The king himself drew it from the 
wound, and struck it into the forehead of the friar ; 
La Guesle ran him through with his sword; his 
body was hurled from the window, where it was 
hacked to pieces by the soldiers, burned, and the 
ashes thrown into the Seine. 1 

At first the surgeons did not consider the wound 
mortal, but when they had ascertained that the in- 
testines were pierced, all hope vanished. The dying 
monarch received absolution, and embracing the 
King of Navarre, said to him, with solemn earnest- 
ness, " Brother, I assure you, you will never be 
King of France, unless you turn Catholic, and hum- 

1 A pamphlet was printed on the martyrdom of James Cle- 
ment, in which it was affirmed that an angel had appeared to 
him, and ordered him to kill the tyrant, exhibiting a naked 
sword. A suspicion remained with the public that some of the 
brethren of Clement, abusing his credulity, had themselves 
spoken to him in the night, and thus worked on his imagina- 
tion. However that may be, Clement prepared himself for 
regicide, as a good Catholic would for martyrdom, by prayer, 
fasting, and mortification. There is no doubt of his sincerity, 
and that he perpetrated the crime conscientiously, believing that 
it was a pious act : on this account he has been represented 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 247 

ble yourself to the church." 1 The nobility being in- 
troduced, Henry said that he was not alarmed at the 
prospect of death, but grieved to leave the kingdom 
in a state of anarchy : that he desired no revenge 
for his death ; that religion taught him to pardon 
injuries, which he had done on many occasions in 
times past : he exhorted all to recognize the King 
of Navarre, to whom the crown rightfully belonged, 
observing- that he felt sure Bourbon would return 
into the bosom of the church, and be reconciled with 
the pope. He died on the night of the second and 
third of August, at the age of thirty-six, having 
reigned fifteen years and two months. With him 
terminated the royal house of Yalois, and the pos- 
terity of Philip III., surnamed the Hardy. 

Of this monarch Davila has drawn the following 

rather as a poor, weak creature, led astray by his extreme sim- 
plicity, than as a villain influenced by a bad disposition. La 
Guesle, who had some suspicions of his loyalty, had him watched 
during the night that he slept at Saint Cloud. His slumber 
was profound ; his breviary was on his bed, open at the passage 
which narrates the murder of Holofernes by Judith. (Notes 
to the Henriade.) Davila says that he had seen Clement at the 
house of Stephano Lusignano, a Cyprian bishop of Limisso. 
He remarks that Clement was considered a half-witted fellow, 
and rather a subject of sport than fear, being the butt of his 
associates. P. 404. 

1 " The King of Navarre,' ' says Cayet, a kneeled at his bed- 
side, sighs and tears not permitting him to utter a word. He 
took his majesty's hands between his and kissed them. Henry, 
perceiving that his cousin was silent, owing to the strong emo- 
tions by which he was agitated, embraced his head, kissed him 
on the cheek, and gave him his benediction." Had not the 
knife been poisoned, according to Cayet, the wound would not 
have been fatal ; but this seems an error, as it is certain that 
the intestines were pierced. 



248 REIGN OF HENRY III. 

character : " In Henry III. were all amiable quali- 
ties, which, in the beginning of his years, were ex- 
ceedingly reverenced and admired : singular pru- 
dence, royal magnanimity, inexhaustible munificence, 
most profound piety, most ardent zeal for religion, 
perpetual love to the good, implacable hatred to the 
bad, infinite desire to benefit all, popular eloquence, 
affability becoming a prince, generous courage, and 
wonderful dexterity in arms; for which virtues, 
during the reign of his brother, he was more ad- 
mired and esteemed than the king himself. He 
was a general before he was a soldier, and a great 
statesman before he came to years of maturity. He 
made war with vigour, baffled the experience of the 
most famous captains, won bloody battles, took for- 
tresses deemed impregnable, gained the hearts of 
people far remote, and was renowned and glorious 
in the mouths of all men ; but when he ascended 
the throne he sought out subtle inventions to free 
himself from the yoke and servitude of the factious, 
and both parties conceived such a hatred against 
him, that his religion was accounted hypocrisy, — 
his prudence, craftiness, — his policy, meanness of 
spirit, — his liberality, licentious and unbridled pro- 
digality ; his courteousness was despised, his gravity 
hated, his name detested ; his private life was vili- 
fied as a continuous round of vice ; and his death, 
being extremely rejoiced at by factious men and the 
common people, was rashly attributed to a stroke of 
divine justice." 

That Henry possessed some amiable traits of cha- 
racter, and that his intentions were better than his 
actions, may be admitted; but, if we except the 



REIGN OF HENRY III. 249 

personal courage lie displayed, when young, at Jarnac 
and Moncontour, we shall find little to admire, and 
much to censure. His prodigal munificence to his 
minions some have lauded as proofs of liberality ; 
but it was the liberality of a reckless spendthrift, 
who squanders what he has not earned : the people 
groaned under taxes to feed the insatiable cravings 
of the favourites. Of the vices of this kino- we have 
not spoken : to name them would outrage decency ; 
they are, however, abundantly and minutely de- 
tailed in the French memoirs of his days, and deprive 
him of all claims to morality or virtue. He had no 
strength of mind : and though he could display dig - 
nitv on state occasions, and then act the kinof, he 
was weak to imbecility as a diplomatist. The 
Guises knew this foible, and profited by it to pro- 
mote their own views : a vigorous monarch would 
easily have coerced that ambitious and rebellious 
family. With all his faults Henry possessed a most 
forgiving disposition, which endeared him to those 
who enjoyed his private society; by them he was 
deeply and sincerely regretted, and he had the very 
rare satisfaction of witnessing genuine tears flow 
down the cheeks of his attendants, as they awaited 
the hour of final separation, — a proof of affection 
with which kings are seldom honoured. 



250 



EEIGN OF HENRY IV. 

The crime of James Clement, though it placed the 
crown of France on the head of the King of Navarre, 
according to the law and constitution of the realm, 
rendered his position extremely embarrassing. He 
was at the head of a motley army, in which little 
confidence could be reposed : his claim to the throne 
was of course recognized by the Huguenots, but 
these were the least numerous of the soldiery ; the 
Catholics and the foreign auxiliaries wavered in their 
allegiance ; some openly renounced it : even the Cal- 
vinists feared that the king, to secure the sceptre, 
would abandon his religion : thus doubts and dis- 
trust spread to every quarter. 

On the night of the 2nd of August, the Catholic 
leaders assembled to deliberate on the course most 
expedient to be pursued. A diversity of opinion 
arose : one party voted to support the King of Na- 
varre, contending that his claim was just, and if now 
set aside it might lead to an infraction of the Salic 
law, and disturb all the established rules of succes- 
sion. It was further argued, that if his title was 
disputed, pretenders would start up in every pro- 
vince, each demanding a separate principality ; thus 
the monarchy would be severed among petty sove- 
reigns, and become a prey to civil discords, which 
would invite foreign interference, and place in peril 



REIGX OF HENRY IT. 251 

the liberties of France. The personal qualities of 
Henry were warmly extolled, his courage, clemency, 
modesty, and disinterestedness; they promised a 
mild, just, and tolerant goTernment. MoreoTer, it 
was warmly urged that the nobles would disgrace 
their honour, by joining those who had committed 
regicide. The chiefs of this party were the Duke of 
Longueville, the Baron de Givry, and the Sieur de 
Rambouillet. 

The opponents of Henry were numerous. They 
contended that they ought to obey the DiTine law. 
regardless of consequences ; that by accepting a he- 
retic king they endangered their own souls and those 
of their posterity ; that the example of England, 
where Protestant soTereigns had abolished the 
Romish doctrines, should warn them of the evils to 
be apprehended from a Huguenot monarch ; that 
Bourbon had frequently been exhorted to renounce 
his heresy, but that he always refused or evaded 
compliance : his good qualities were admitted, but 
these could not be trusted for any length of time, on 
account of his religious tenets. The heads of this 
party were D'O, D'Entragues, and Dampierre, the 
field-marshal. 

Between these two opinions arose a third, which 
was supported by Marshal Biron and the Dukes of 
Luxembourg and Epernon. They proposed that 
Henry should be acknowledged king, on condition 
that he would change his religion and embrace the 
Roman Catholic faith. They urged that this ac- 
corded with the dying declaration of Henry III., 
who had nominated the Kino* of Navarre his 
lawful successor, but admonished him that he would 



252 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

never reign in peace, unless he reconciled himself to 
the Church of Rome. 

This last resolution was handed by the Duke of 
Luxembourg to Bourbon, who steered a middle 
course, neither accepting nor rejecting the overtures 
of the Catholic lords. He thanked them for ac- 
knowledging his legitimate claim, but declined any 
hasty recantation of his opinions, as though extorted 
from him by a dagger at his throat. He promised 
to consider the subject, and give a definitive answer 
when his judgment was satisfied ; in the meantime 
he offered to guarantee the free exercise of the Ca- 
tholic religion in all the privileges that it possessed 
at the death of his predecessor. 1 The royal offer 
was accepted — the Catholics in the camp acknow- 
ledged Henry of Bourbon as their lawful prince, and 
took an oath of fidelity to him as King of France. 
On his side he swore to instruct himself in the mys- 
teries of religion within six months, or convene a ge- 
neral council, to whose decrees he would submit. 
On the 4th of August this contract was signed and 
registered in the parliament of Tours. 

This agreement, however, did not consolidate the 
power of the king, or prevent desertion from his 
camp. The first who abandoned him was the Duke 
of Epernon, 2 on the plea of having been treated dis- 

1 La Noue, a decided Huguenot, and deeply experienced 
in the world, told Henry, without reserve, that he must aban- 
don all hopes of being King of France, unless he became a Ca- 
tholic. — Davila, p. 410. 

2 The King of Navarre and Epernon had quarrelled during 
the reign of Henry III. Epernon tried to disgrace him with Va- 
lois, on which Bourbon told him, that if he thought to use him 
as he had done the Lords of Guise, he would find his mistake. 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 253 

courteously, he claiming precedency over Marshals 
Biron and Aumont, which was disallowed. Many 
other noblemen imitated this example, and by the 
7th of August the army was diminished one half. 
The defection of the Swiss was only prevented 
through the earnest persuasions of Marshal Biron :' 
even several of the Huguenots quitted the royal 
standard. The conduct of the princes of the blood 
was equally embarrassing to the king. Six of them 
were now living — the old Cardinal of Bourbon, the 
Cardinal of Yendome, the Count of Soissons, the 
Prince of Conti, the Duke of Montpensier, and his 
son, called the Prince of Dombes. Each of them 
had pretensions of his own : the Count of Soissons, 
who had already embroiled himself with Henry, 
was now intriguing to deprive him of the throne, 
unless he recanted. We have seen that this reso- 
lution had been taken by many of the nobles, and 
Francis D'O, superintendent of the finances, had 
the insolence to repeat this menace to the king's 
face. Henry replied with firmness, tempered with 
mildness, testifying a wish to retain their friendship, 
but showing no alarm at their hostility. It was also 
difficult for the king to preserve those provinces 
which seemed docile to his command ; for the gover- 
nors, believing that he would never free himself 
from his complicated difficulties, thought the moment 

Eperaon had said, more than once, that the King of Navarre 
made war. not as a sovereign but as a freebooter. Their old 
quarrel was not pacified. — Davila, p. 400. 

1 Henry IV. received such important services upon this occa- 
sion from Marshal Biron, that it was reported that it was he who 
made him king ; and the marshal is said to have reproached Henry 
with his services in those very terms. — Brantome, c. iii. p. 366*. 



254 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

favourable for parcelling out France into small prin- 
cipalities, and each was plotting to obtain the sove- 
reignty of his province. Such were the views of 
Montmorenci in Languedoc, and Lesdiguieres in 
Dauphiny. 

Turenne was enamoured of a speculation of his 
own. He meditated the organization of a single re- 
public, composed of all the reformed churches of the 
kingdom : his object was, to place it under the pro- 
tection of the elector-palatine, from whom all need- 
ful succours might be drawn : he aspired to be chief 
of this Calvinist confederation, with the title of 
lieutenant-general to that elector ; but in the scheme 
he only showed a criminal wish to dismember the 
empire, and very little judgment. In fact, nothing- 
was more chimerical than the attempt to govern by 
the same laws the several Huguenot churches, scat- 
tered over the whole surface of France, and separated 
from each other by Catholic churches. There could 
be no effective union among parties thus cut off from 
all regular communication in case of war, so that the 
king had no dread of this association. All he feared 
was, lest the wild schemes of Turenne might delude 
the Huguenots into an attempt to accomplish what 
was really impracticable : in fact they did not deem 
it impracticable. The most ambitious among them 
pretended that it was quite easy of execution, in 
order to attract troops to their banner, and they par- 
tially succeeded with many simple persons, who 
were induced to shake off their allegiance, on being 
told that Henry would sooner or later recant, and 
then abandon them. Thus Bourbon encountered 
opposition where he had a right to expect support, 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 255 

and was betrayed even by his friends. Let us enter 
Paris, and examine the strength and tactics of his 
enemies. 

When the news of Henry the Third's murder 
reached Paris, the leaguers of the capital were trans- 
ported with a ferocious joy. The Duchess of Mont- 
pensier embraced the messenger who brought the in- 
telligence, exclaiming, " This is happiness indeed ! 
I am only vexed that he did not know, before he 
died, that I sharpened the knife ! !" This avowal 
puts beyond doubt the favours she conferred on Cle- 
ment. She traversed the streets with the Duchess 
of Xemours, crying out, " Good news, my friends ! 
good news ! the tyrant is dead ! We shall have no 
more of Henry of Talois !" She proposed that the 
mourning should be in bright green, and distributed a 
great number of scarfs of that colour. The Duchess 
of Xemours went to the church of the Cordeliers, 
ascended the steps of the altar, and pronounced the 
most severe censures on the murdered monarch. In 
every quarter of Paris bonfires were lighted and fire- 
works exhibited. Defences of James Clement were 
published : his portrait was engraved in various sizes ; 
it was placed on the altars of the metropolitan 
churches. His mother having come to Paris, the Je- 
suits persuaded the populace to reverence the blessed 
mother of the sainted martyr, and even proposed to 
erect a statue in the church of Notre Dame to the 
regicide monk. Sixtus V., in full consistory, lauded 
the assassin with the most extravagant praise ; he 
even said, that the crime, for usefulness, might be 
compared to the incarnation and resurrection of the 



256 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

Saviour ; and, for heroism, to the actions of Judith 
and Eleazar. 

The council of Sixteen continued to insult Henry 
IY. denying his royal title, and Calling him simply 
the Navarrois, the Bearnois ; and the chiefs of the 
league availed themselves of the popular frenzy to 
revive the almost hopeless prospects of their criminal 
ambition. Of the formidable house of Guise the 
Duke of Mayenne was now the chief: him the 
Duchess of Montpensier urged to seize the throne. 
From this he was dissuaded by Villeroi and the 
president, Jeannin — moreover, Mendoza, the Spanish 
ambassador, would have opposed his election, as his 
master had designs upon the crown for himself, and 
Mayenne could never have held out against the 
King of Navarre, had he openly thwarted the views 
of Philip, on whose aid he mainly depended. For 
these reasons he proclaimed the Cardinal of Bour- 
bon, then a prisoner in Chinon, and this nomina- 
tion was confirmed by the council of the league. 
The new king assumed the title of Charles the Tenth. 
It was fortunate for Henry IY. that his ene- 
mies were divided among themselves. The pope did 
not enter heartily and sincerely into the views of 
Spain. He found Philip already too strong for the 
Yatican, and he foresaw, that if he became King of 
France, and retained the Low Countries, the sove- 
reign pontiff would be reduced to a mere head 
chaplain to the court of Madrid. lie, therefore, 
willingly acknowledged the Cardinal of Bourbon, 
nor would he have hesitated to recognize the King of 
Navarre, provided he renounced Calvinism, so great 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 257 

was his dread lest France should fall under the do- 
minion of the house of Austria. 

The revolt of the Low Countries prevented Philip 
from sending into France a force sufficiently strong 
for its conquest. He trusted as much to his wily 
and deceitful policy as to his armies ; and having as 
yet no settled plan, he was disposed to regulate his 
conduct by circumstances. If unable to place the 
crown of France on his own head, he hoped to give 
it to some nobleman who would marry his daughter; 
if that scheme failed, through the rivalry of the dif- 
ferent competitors who might aspire to her hand, he 
intended to dismember the kingdom, by parcelling it 
out into different small principalities : as a last al- 
ternative he was prepared to recognize the King of 
Navarre, on his yielding up some provinces. With 
these views he secretly fomented jealousies among 
the chiefs of the league, giving to all great hopes and 
small assistance, by which plan he expected to be- 
come chief arbiter of the differences. But the 
most refined and dexterous duplicity becomes sus- 
pected when often repeated, because the very act of 
deception ultimately opens the eyes of those deceived. 
Philip already began to be suspected. The leaders 
of the Catholics knew that he would not render such 
aid to any one of their body as would confer a pre- 
ponderating influence ; they felt that they had been 
the duped instruments of his ambition, and now de- 
termined to make use of his resources, without al- 
lowing him to exercise any decided authority. 

The King of Navarre divided his army, greatly 
thinned by desertion, into three squadrons ; one com- 
manded by the Duke of Lonoueville, Governor of 



258 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

Picardy, held in check the Spaniards, who menaced 
the invasion of that province ; the second, entrusted 
to the Duke D'Aumont, covered Champagne; the 
king led the third into Normandy, and encamped at 
Dieppe, there to await the arrival of the English 
auxiliaries, promised him by Elizabeth. Mayenne 
inarched against him, at the head of thirty-thousand 
men. The royal army was reduced to six thousand 
foot and fourteen hundred horse, and such was the 
extremity of the king's position, that he was on 
the point of retiring into England, which Marshal 
Biron prevented, by advising him to make good his 
stand at Arques. 1 

" Sire," said Biron, " the majority of the council 
propose that you should quit the kingdom. I am of 
opinion, that were you not actually in France, you 
should enter it at all hazards. Will you voluntarily 
expatriate yourself, and do an act of your own ac- 
cord which the whole strength of your enemies must 
fail to accomplish ? In your position, Sire, to quit 
France for twenty-four hours would be tantamount 
to perpetual banishment. The danger, however, is 
not so great as it is painted ; those who now ap- 
proach to attack us are the very men we held en- 
closed in Paris, or others equally worthy of contempt. 
Finally, we are on our native soil ; let us tread it as 
conquerors, or be buried in its bosom. A kingdom 
is the stake; let us win it or die. Even were 
there no safety for your person but in flight, better a 
thousand times to perish than live dishonoured. 

1 Before the battle of Arques Henry said, " that he was a 
king without a kingdom, a husband without a wife, and a warrior 
without money." 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 259 

Your majesty should never let it be said, that a scion 
of the house of Lorraine expelled you from your he- 
reditary dominions, to beg your bread at the gate of 
a foreign prince. No, no, Sire, neither crown nor 
honour await you beyond the sea. If you impor- 
tune England for succour, she will hold back ; if 
you present yourself before the port of Rochelle as a 
fugitive, you will be loaded with reproach. I can- 
not think that you ought to trust your person to the 
uncertainty of the sea or the mercy of strangers, 
when so many brave gentlemen, and so many vete- 
ran soldiers are ready to spill their blood in your de- 
fence : and I am too faithful a servant of your ma- 
jesty to dissemble, that if you sought for safety any 
where but in virtue, they would seek their safety 
under some other leader." 

The wavering resolution of Henry was fixed by 
this manly harangue, and he determined to give bat- 
tle at Arques. Mayenne advanced slowly with 
thirty thousand men, announcing on his road that he 
was going to seize the Beamois, and lead him bound 
hand and foot, to Paris. At the end of the cause- 
way at Arques, there is a long winding hill, covered 
with coppice, beneath is a space of arable land, 
in the midst of which is the great road that leads 
to Arques, having thick hedges on each side. Lower 
down, upon the left hand, there is a kind of great 
marsh or boggy ground. A village called Martin 
Eglise bounds the hill, about half a league from 
the causeway. It was in this village, and in the neigh- 
bourhood of it, that the whole army of the Duke of 
Mayenne was encamped. The king ordered deep 
trenches to be cut at the causeway, above and be- 

s 2 



260 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

neath the great road, posting twelve hundred Swiss 
on each side of this road, and six hundred German 
foot to defend the upper trenches : he placed a thou- 
sand to twelve hundred others in a chapel he found 
in the midst of the upper and lower trenches : these 
were all the infantry he had; his cavalry, which 
amounted in all to only six hundred men, he divided 
into two equal parties. 1 

On the 21st of September, 1589, Mayenne as- 
saulted the royalists. The Germans in his army 
got possession of the upper trenches, in which their 
countrymen were placed, by lowering their arms, as 
if they intended to desert their colours and unite 
with their brethren. But this stratagem only met 
with temporary success ; the leaguers were soon ex- 
pelled from the position they had gained. The king 
plunged into the thickest of the fight, and was in 
such imminent peril that he exclaimed, " Are there 
not fifty gentlemen who have courage to die in com- 
pany with their king ?" At this juncture, had May- 
enne advanced rapidly with his cavalry, the complete 
defeat of the royalists would have been inevitable : 
the Duke was so tardy in his movements, that Cha- 
tillon, son of the deceased Admiral Coligny, was 
enabled to march up with two regiments of infantry 
to the aid of Henry, whom he rescued from almost 
certain death. A dense fog, which had prevailed 
during the early part of the battle, clearing up, the 
cannon, mounted on the castle of Arques, were brought 
into play, and with such terrible effect, that the 
army of the league retreated in disorder, leaving the 
royalists in possession of the field. Mayenne re- 
1 Sully, c. iii. 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 261 

tired into Picardy, whence he intended to proceed to 
Flanders, to concert new measures with the Spa- 
niards. 1 

"While the duke was besieging the camp and lines 
of Arques, the emissaries of the league circulated re- 
ports in Paris most flattering to their cause. Three 
banners, which the Germans had seized on entering 
the upper trenches, as described, were sent to the 
Duchess of Montpensier, and from these models she 
caused many more to be made, which were exhibited 
as trophies of victory. So convinced were the Pa- 
risians of the capture of the king, that windows were 
hired in the principal streets, to have a view of his 
entrance into the capital, tied on the back of a lame 
horse. This illusion was soon dissipated. 

A few days after the battle of Arques, the king, 
being joined by the Duke of Longueville and Mar- 
shal D'Aumont, with considerable reinforcements, 
pursued the army of the league, and entered tri- 
umphantly into Amiens, the chief city of Picardy. 
While he was there engaged in re-organizing his 
army, four thousand English, and one thousand 
Scotch auxiliaries, sent by Elizabeth, reached his 
camp, and delivered to him twenty-two thousand 
pounds sterling, a larger sum of money than he had 

1 Sixtus V. predicted that the Bearnois would succeed, saying 
that he was no longer in bed than Mayenne was at table. The 
duke was proverbial for the slowness of his motions. <l If he 
does not act in another manner," said the king, Ct I shall cer- 
tainly always beat him in the field." (Perexfie.) After the bat- 
tle of Arques the same pope applied these words to Henry TV. 
''''Super aspidem'et basiliscum ambulabis 9 et conculcabis lennem et 
draconem ;" meaning by the asp the Duke of Mayenne, the Duke 
of Savoy by the basilisk, the King of Spain by the lion, and 
himself by the dragon. 



262 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 



ever possessed during his whole career ; he imme- 
diately distributed the whole of it among his troops. 
The king now mustered twenty thousand foot, three 
thousand cavalry, and fourteen large cannon. 1 With 
these forces he marched against Paris, and on the 
1 st of January, 1 589, assaulted the suburbs of the 
capital. In this attack nine hundred of the Pari- 
sians perished, and a large booty was collected from 
the opulent faubourg of St. Germain, by which many 
of the soldiers were greatly enriched. 2 Four hun- 
dred prisoners were taken, among whom was Edmund 
Burgoin, prior of the order of Jacobins, who being 
convicted on evidence of having applauded the as- 
sassination of Henry III. from the pulpit, and 
of having instigated Clement to the murder, was 
sentenced to be drawn in pieces by four horses, his 
members burned, and his ashes scattered to the 
wind. This sentence was executed a few months 
afterwards, by a judgment of the parliament of 
Tours. 

On hearing of the siege of Paris, Mayenne ad- 
vanced from the confines of Flanders to its relief, 
and the king retired to Tours, where he was acknow- 
ledged King of France by the Cardinals of Yen- 
dome and Lenoncour, and the nobles assembled in 
that city. About the same time the title of Henry 
was recognized by Venice, and that republic ap- 

» Davila, p. 424. 
2 Sully boasts that he himself obtained three thousand crowns 
for his own share, and confesses that all his men made very con- 
siderable booty, c. iii. Chatillon, son of Admiral Col igny, dis- 
tinguished himself greatly on this occasion, as though he was re- 
solved to appease the manes of his father, and avenge the hor- 
rors of St. Bartholomew's day. 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 263 

pointed Mocenigo their ambassador at his court, in 
spite of the remonstrances of the pope. The king 
then marched into Normandy, and on the 13th De- 
cember, 1589, the whole of the lower province, with 
the exception of Harneur, fell into his power. 

At the commencement of the following year the 
pope resolved openly to espouse the cause of the 
league, and sent to Paris, as his legate, the Cardinal 
Cajetan, to whom he gave three hundred thousand 
crowns, which were to be tendered as a ransom for 
the Cardinal of Bourbon. After many difficulties 
the legate arrived in Paris, on the 20th January, 
1590, and published letters missive from his holiness, 
by which all Roman Catholics were commanded to 
unite for the extirpation of heresy, and obey the 
orders of Cajetan in whatever related to things 
spiritual. These letters were accepted by the par- 
liament of Paris, but the parliament of Tours not 
not only rejected them, but denied the authority of 
the legate even to remain in France in an official 
capacity, he not having presented any credentials to 
the king. 

Though the avowed protection of the pope had 
given some increased confidence to the more fanatical 
members of the league, the affairs of the confederacy 
were still very doubtful and embarrassed. Its lead- 
ers had rival pretensions, and were divided against 
each other. Mayenne hoped to seize the crown for 
himself and his posterity, but failing in that, he was 
determined that France should neither be dismem- 
bered, nor transferred to a foreign prince. The 
King of Spain, who had already spent two millions 
of gold in fomenting civil discord, and on whom the 



264 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 



chief burthen of the war still rested, aimed at uniting 
France to Spain, or at least to settle the former on 
his daughter, the Infanta Isabella, by his marriage 
with Elizabeth, eldest sister of Henry III. In the 
mean time he insisted upon being declared the pro- 
tector of the crown, with the full exercise of the 
royal prerogative, and in these views he was favoured 
by the common people of Paris, and the priests. 
The nobility of the league, mindful of the services of 
the house of Guise, inclined to the cause of Mayenne. 
Many of the parliament of Paris secretly supported 
the king, hoping that he would ultimately return to 
the church. The Duke of Lorraine endeavoured to 
secure the throne for his son, the Marquis Du Pont, 
born from his marriage with Claude, another sister 
of Henry III. ; and, as the head of his family, he 
was highly displeased with Mayenne, one of its 
younger branches, for aspiring to the sovereignty. 
The Duke of Savoy also put forth a claim to the 
kingdom, because he was the son of Margaret, sister 
of Henry II. Failing in their principal scheme, 
these two princes kept in reserve a minor policy : the 
Duke of Lorraine wished to secure Metz, Toul, Ver- 
dun, and the Duchy of Sedan, while the Duke of 
Savoy, still in possession of the Marquisate of Saluzzo, 
hoped to retain it, and also seize on the whole of 
Provence. The Duke of Nemours wished to convert 
his government of Lyons into an independent seig- 
nory, and the Duke of Mercceur plotted to make 
himself supreme in Brittany, which province, by 
ancient title, he pretended was the lawful inherit- 
ance of his wife. Such were among the diversified 
views and conflicting interests of the chiefs of the 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 265 

league, and their conduct clearly shows, that under 
the pretext of religion, they merely sought to pro- 
mote their personal ambition. 

The king, aware of the discord and rivalry that 
distracted the councils of his enemies, sent the Count 
of Belin, who had been taken prisoner at Arques, on 
parole, with propositions to Mayenne, who, after 
much hesitation, rejected them, still clinging to the 
hope of securing the crown for himself. The Duke 
persuaded the legate to give him the three hundred 
thousand crowns, originally destined for the ransom 
of the Cardinal of Bourbon, of whose liberation in- 
deed there was no hope. The Spanish auxiliaries 
marched from Flanders, and joined the army of May- 
enne, and their united forces laid siege to Meulan, a 
small town on the Seine, but of importance, as the 
occupation of it by the royalists obstructed the con- 
veyance of provisions by the river into Paris. 

The king, who was then quartered between Lisieux 
and Ponteau de Mer, with the intention of besieg- 
ing Honfleur, hastened to the relief of Meulan. 
After an unsuccessful attack, which lasted twenty-five 
days, Mayenne was compelled to raise the siege, and 
Henry determined to assault the city of Dreux. 
This movement so alarmed the Parisians that they 
broke out into mutiny, and insisted on Mayenne 
trying the fate of a pitched battle. His army con- 
sisted of twenty thousand foot and four thousand 
five hundred horse ; the royalists only mustered 
eight thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry. 
They met at Ivry, on the 14th of March, 1590, when 
Henry obtained a complete victory. Six thousand 
of the league perished, among whom were the Count 



266 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 



of Egmont, who commanded the Spaniards, and the 
Duke of Brunswick, who commanded the Germans. 
Sixteen French and twenty Swiss colours, eight 
pieces of cannon, with all the baggage and ammuni- 
tion attached to the camp, fell into the hands of the 
conquerors. The loss of the royalists was five hun- 
dred killed and two hundred wounded, among the 
latter were Marshal Biron and Sully, the latter of 
whom received seven wounds. 1 

Though the king did not derive from this victory 
the advantages that ought to have accrued, a mutiny 

1 Davila, p, 449. Before the battle commenced the king thus 
addressed his troops : u My companions ! if this day you run my 
fortune, I also run yours. I am resolved to die or conquer with 
you. Keep your ranks, I beseech you, but if you should quit 
them in the heat of the battle, rally immediately ; if you should 
lose sight of your colours keep my white plume of feathers al- 
ways in view : it will lead you to victory and glory." — Pere- 
Jixe. De Thou and Cayet observe, that Henry's artillery fired nine 
times before Mayenne's began. They also blame the duke for 
having disposed his army in the shape of a. crescent, like Henry's, 
when being superior in number he ought to have given it the 
form of a triangle. According to Matthieu, the king was guilty 
of a great error, in not commencing the battle by falling upon 
the light-horse, commanded by Du Terrail,and on the division 
commanded by the Duke ofMayenne, who having advanced too 
far, was obliged to make a circuit of half a league in retreating. 

The Count of Egmont was eon of Admiral Egmont, who was 
decapitated at Brussels with the Prince of Horn. The son, who 
remained attached to the party of Philip II. King of Spain, was" 
sent to the aid of the Duke ofMayenne, at the head of eighteen 
hundred lancers. On his entrance into Paris he received the 
compliments of the municipal body. The president in his ad- 
dress praised Admiral Egmont. u Do not speak of him," said 
the count: "he was a rebel, and merited death ;" language the 
more to be condemned, as he was then speaking to rebels whose 
cause he was about to support by force of arms. — Notes to the 
Henriade. 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 267 

having arisen among the Swiss, who clamoured 
for their arrears of pay, he, however, advanced to 
Meulan, seven leagues distant from Paris, on the 
banks of the Seine, and captured it after a slight re- 
sistance. There he received Villeroi, attached to 
the league, who prayed him to grant a cessation of 
arms, which was refused. A similar request was 
renewed by Mocenigo, the Venetian envoy, but it 
also was rejected, the king complaining bitterly of 
the cardinal legate, whom he accused of acting ra- 
ther as a Spaniard than as a churchman. Such of 
the Parisians as were suspected of desiring peace, 
were seized, and either executed or cast into the 
river, as enemies to the Roman Catholic faith, in- 
fected with the poison of heresy, and as favourers of 
a relapsed and excommunicated monarch. In order to 
keep up the enthusiasm of the populace, the pre- 
lates, priests, and monks of the several orders para- 
ded the streets in solemn procession, arrayed in their 
religious robes, carrying guns and swords in their 
hands ; while the Duke of Nemours, governor of the 
city, the principal military commanders, and the 
magistrates, swore to defend the city to the last mau, 
rather than acknowledge a heretic prince. The Bi- 
shop of Paris consented that the church -plate should 
be melted into money for the relief of the poor. 
Under these circumstances the royal army blockaded 
Paris, with the intent of reducing it by famine. 

At this period the Cardinal of Bourbon, recog- 
nized as king by the league, under the title of 
Charles X., died at Fontenay, having publicly ac- 
knowledged the right of his nephew. This event 
embarrassed the confederates. Hitherto all procla- 



268 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

mations had been issued in his name, and all the 
decrees of the parliament were authenticated under 
his nominal sanction : in several towns money had 
been coined, bearing his effigies; it was now a 
question who was the head of the government, but 
still all agreed on rejecting Henry, and the decrees 
of the Sorbonne had the force of law. Mayenne 
proposed a convocation of the states-general at 
Meaux, for the election of a king, himself still re- 
taining the title of lieutenant-general, and then 
journeyed to Conde, on the frontiers, to confer with 
Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, who com- 
manded all the Spanish forces. 

Philip had resolved to assist the league, but his 
ultimate views were indistinctly defined. His main 
object had been to gain the throne for himself; but 
that scheme now appeared hopeless, as he clearly 
perceived that, in the event of the overthrow of the 
Calvinist party, Mayenne would claim the prize for 
himself. Still he desired the exclusion of Henry, 
whom he had rendered an implacable enemy; for 
should he succeed, he dreaded his assisting the Pro- 
testants of the Low Countries with the united power 
of France. Of two evils he, therefore, inclined to 
choose the least, and determined to support May- 
enne, on whose neutrality he could at least depend, 
if not on his co-operation. The Duke of Parma, 
one of the most wary diplomatists and able generals 
of his age, remonstrated against quitting Flanders ; 
but his opinion was overruled by the court of Ma- 
drid : nevertheless, though forced to march, he was 
resolved not to hazard any decisive battle, which 
might bring the civil war to a conclusion ; for, by 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 269 

protracting it, he hoped so to weaken both parties 
as to secure a complete ascendency to Philip, and 
constitute him the sole umpire and dictator of the 
exhausted country. 

In the meanwhile the beleaguered city suffered 
dreadfully from famine. Such was the scarcity that 
a bushel of corn sold for one hundred and twenty 
crowns. The only bread, and that very scarce, was 
made of oats. Horses, dogs, asses, and mules were 
used as meat ; and they were delicacies, as Davila 
expressly says, " publicly sold for the families of 
the greatest lords/' The poor fed on herbs and 
grass, which they picked up in yards and streets, 
and on the ramparts : these produced such cruel dis- 
ease that many died. Excessive heat following ex- 
cessive rain increased the general sickness. Even 
the bones of the dead were ground down into 
powder and greedily devoured 1 There was no fire- 
wood, and the flesh of beasts was eaten raw. Skins 
and hides were boiled. The extremity to which 
the city was reduced raises at once our compassion 
and horror. In the space of a month thirty thou- 
sand persons died of hunger, and, dreadful to relate, 
even mothers fed upon their children. 2 

" I must be permitted," says Sully, " slightly 

1 It was Mendoza, Spanish ambassador to the league, who 
advised the manufacture of bread out of bones; a recommenda- 
tion which was carried into effect, and only served to shorten the 
days of many thousands of men. This act forcibly exemplifies 
the.weakness and waywardness of the human mind. The be- 
sieged would not have dared to have eaten the jiesh of their 
countrymen, after being slain ; but they scrupled not to pul- 
verize and feed upon their bones. — Xotes to the Henriade. 

~ See the verses in the Henriade, canto x. p. 193. 



270 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

to pass over these occurrences : I cannot with any 
pleasure enlarge on so dreadful a subject. The king, 
naturally compassionate, was moved with the dis- 
tress of the Parisians : he could not bear the thought 
of seeing this city, the empire of which was destined 
for him by Providence, become one vast church- 
yard. He secretly permitted everything that could 
contribute to its relief, and affected not to observe 
the supplies of provisions, which the officers and 
soldiers suffered to enter the city, either out of com- 
passion to their relations and friends who were in it, 
or with a design to make the citizens pay dear for 
them. Without doubt he imagined this conduct 
would gain for him the hearts of the Parisians, but 
he was deceived ; they enjoyed his benefits without 
ceasing to look upon him as the author of their 
calamities, and, elated with the Duke of Parma's 
arrival, they insulted him, who only raised the 
siege, because he was too much affected by the mi- 
series of the besieged. 1 

Perefixe, Cayet, and others are of opinion, that 
the king was withheld from taking Paris by storm, 
and from yielding to the repeated entreaties of his 
soldiers, particularly of the Huguenots, by his having 
perceived that on this occasion they were resolved 
to revenge the massacre of St. Bartholomew, by 
putting all within Paris to the sword. " The Duke 
of Nemours," says Perefixe, " sent all useless 
mouths out of Paris ; the king's council opposed 
his granting them free passage; but he, being in- 
formed of the dreadful scarcity to which these mi- 
serable wretches were reduced, ordered that they 
1 Sully, c. iv. 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 271 

should not be molested." " I am not surprised," 
said Henry, " that the Spaniards and chiefs of the 
league have no compassion on these poor people; 
they are only tyrants : as for me, I am their father 
and king, and cannot bear the recital of their ca- 
lamities, without being pierced to my inmost soul, 
and ardently desiring to give them relief." * The 
Cardinal of Gondy, Bishop of Paris, having been 
sent, during the siege, to make Henry propositions 
of peace, u I will not dissemble," said he, " but 
discover my sentiments to you freely ; I am willing 
to grant you peace ; I desire it myself. I would 
give one finger to have a battle, and two to have a 
general peace. I love my city of Paris, I am 
jealous of her; I am desirous of doing her service, 
and would grant her more favours than she demands 
of me ; but I would grant them voluntarily, and 
not be compelled to it by the King of Spain or the 
Duke of Mayenne." It may be added that Henry 
expected the Parisians would capitulate before the 
Duke of Parma's arrival. They owed their safety 
chiefly to the Duke Nemours, whose gallant defence 
has been highly praised. The people seconded him 
with an obstinate fortitude, which had more of fury 
than true courage. A regiment of monks and 
priests were organized, grotesquely armed above their 
frocks. / 

Such, however, was the distress of the people, 
that any protracted resistance became nearly hope- 
less ; for the German soldiers in Paris began to mu- 
tiny, for want of pay, and Darila expressly declares 
that they killed all the children they could seize 
1 Perefixe, p. 2. 



272 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

and ate them. 1 The Duke of Nemours at length 
wrote to Mayenne, stating that, unless he was re- 
lieved within ten days, he should be compelled to 
capitulate; on which the latter advanced with his 
army as far as Meaux, a town ten leagues from 
Paris, and on the 23rd of August, 1590, he was 
joined by the Duke of Parma. 

When the king heard that these reinforcements 
were so near the capital, he called a council -of- war, 
when it was decided that he should raise the siege, 
which he did on the 30th of August, and marched 
to Chelles, 2 a spacious village, about six leagues from 
Paris, and four from Meaux, intending from that 
position to oppose the march of the Duke of Parma 
to the capital. 3 Chelles is seated in a fenny plain, 
and overflowed by the waters of a little rivulet, 
which stands in pools about its walls. It has on 
both sides a wide, open country, aud in front two 
hills, on whose ascent is the high-road from Meaux 
to Paris. From this encampment the king sent a 
herald to the Duke of Mayenne, challenging him to 
fight, and urging him to rise forth from his den, 
where he lay like a fox rather than like a lion." 

' Page 469. 

2 The intention of the king was to take up his position at 
Clave ; Marshal Biron persuaded him to change his opinion 
and encamp at Chelles. This last town was condemned by 
Sully, and to that single fault he attributes all the honour the 
Duke of Parma gained by taking Lagny, and relieving Paris, 
without fighting a battle. — Sully, c. iv. 

3 De Thou says, that Henry IV. was obliged to pretend that 
he only raised the siege of Paris, in order to go and meet the Prince 
of Parma, and give him battle, fearing that his soldiers, whom 
the hopes of the plunder of Paris had alone induced to remain 
with him, should abandon their colours. Liv. xix. 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 273 

Mayenne sent the herald to the Duke of Parma, 
who caustically answered, " that he knew Aery 
well what to do for the attainment of his own ends, 
and that he had not travelled so far to take coun- 
sel of an enemy; that he saw clearly enough his 
way of proceeding did not please the king ; but 
that, if he were so great a soldier as fame reported 
him to be, he would show his skill, by forcing him 
to a battle against his will ; but that, for his own 
part, he would never put to the caprice of fortune 
what he had already safe in his own hands." l 

The Duke of Parma, confident in the superiority 
of his military tactics, executed a manoeuvre, by 
which he completely triumphed over the king. He 
encamped on a hill opposite the royalists, and drew 
out his army in battle array ; the royalists were 
ready to receive him in the plain below, but as soon 
as he saw all their forces there collected, he turned 
suddenly towards Lagny, so that his rear-guard be- 
came his van-guard. Lagny is seated on the Marne, 
in such a manner that the suburbs, though consist- 
ing of but few houses, stand on the bank of that 
river, on which side both armies were, and the town 
is built on the left bank ; the passage between them 
is by a large bridge, and the Marne was the princi- 
pal river by which provisions could be conveyed 
into Paris. Here La Fin commanded for the king, 
and surprised at being thus attacked by the whole 
army of the league, he abandoned the suburbs, and 
broke down the bridge, retiring with his garrison 
to defend the circuit of the town. The Duke of 
Parma immediately occupied the suburbs, and 
> Davila,p. 472. 

T 



274 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

strengthened them against any attack, and in the 
night planted his artillery in front of Lagny, which 
La Fin despised, as the river was between him and 
his enemy. But the royalist commander was soon 
deceived; for the duke had thrown a bridge of 
boats across the stream, two leagues above the town, 
and landed troops, which marched on Lagny, ready 
to assault it as soon as the cannon had rendered the 
breach practicable. This was speedily effected. 
The Italians and Walloons rushed in ; La Fin was 
taken prisoner and the castle surrendered. Henry 
IV. had the mortification to witness this important 
position captured, and the slaughter of his soldiers, 
without being able to render any assistance. He was 
compelled to march back to his old quarters. Lagny 
being thus taken, the passage of the river became 
free, and abundance of provisions poured into Paris. 
The king now changed his tactics, for the cap- 
ture of the metropolis was more remote than 
ever. He divided his army into several detach- 
ments, for the security of the provinces, and only 
kept near his person some flying squadrons of 
cavalry, to prevent the Duke of Parma making 
any further progress. The Spanish general, at 
the urgent entreaty of Mayenne, laid siege to Cor- 
beil, to free the passage of the Seine, as he had 
done that of the Marne. It was bravely defended by 
Rigaut, the governor, but he being slain, the place 
was carried by assault, on the 16th of October, 
1590, and sacked. During this siege the Duke of 
Parma's soldiers, wanting provisions, had plundered 
the surrounding country, which disgusted the French 
of the league, and gave rise to mutual recrimination 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 2J5 

between them and their allies. Nor was this the 
only cause of distrust and bad feeling. The Duke 
of Parma wished to garrison Corbeil with his own 
troops; to this Mayenne objected. The Spanish 
commander then determined on marching back to 
Flanders, satisfied with the relief of Paris. He 
arranged his army in four divisions, each of which 
was flanked with carriages on all sides, as with a 
rampart, and yet they were so near to each other, as 
to afford ready assistance, if any one of them was 
attacked. Henry followed him in his retreat, but 
gained no advantage over his experienced and cau- 
tious rival. The Baron De Givry recaptured Lagny 
and Corbeil, and with these events the campaign of 
1590 closed. 1 

Though the retreat of the Duke of Parma relieved 
the king from a formidable enemy, the resistance of 
the league was unabated ; and what perplexed him 
more, was the dread of seeing France dismembered 
and carved out into principalities. Emanuel of 
Lorraine, Duke of Mercosur, pretending that the 
duchy of Brittany, of which he was governor for 
the league, belonged to his wife, Mary of Lux- 

1 Henry IV., says Mathieu, when in pursuit of the Duke of 
* Parma, stole away from Attichy, and went, for the first time, to 
visit the beautiful Gabrielle at Coeuvres. He contented himself 
with eating some bread-and-butter at the gate, that he might 
not raise the suspicions of her father. Afterwards, mounting 
his horse, he said that he was going towards the enemy, and that 
the fair one should soon hear what he had performed through 
his passion for her. (Tom. ii., p. 59.) The beautiful Gabrielle 
was daughter of John Antony D'Etrees and Frances Babou de 
la Bourdaisiere. She bore, successively, the names of the fair 
Gabrielle, Madame de Liancourt, Marchioness of Monceaux, 
and Duchess of Beaufort. 

T 2 



276 REIGN OF HENRY IT. 

embourg, Countess of Penthievre, and holding, by 
virtue of his command, the principal towns and 
castles in his possession, now resolved to establish 
an independent sovereignty in the province. Henry 
of Bourbon, Prince of Dombes, son of the Duke of 
Montpensier, had been appointed Governor of Brit- 
tany by the king ; but, though remarkable for per- 
sonal courage, he was unable to cope with Mercceur, 
and would have been completely driven out of the 
province, had he not been supported by the troops 
of Lower Normandy. The young prince, however, 
having taken Annebot, near to Blavet, there con- 
structed a fort on the margin of the sea, so as to 
command the entrance of the harbour ; but a Spanish 
fleet of six-and-thirty ships entered it, in spite of the 
cannon of Fort Dombes, and the prince was compelled 
to retire. In Provence the king was equally unfor-* 
tunate, the Duke of Savoy having possessed himself 
of Aix, the principal city of that department, though 
this was done in opposition to the views of May- 
enne. The king, however, closed the year 1590 
with the capture of Corby, a town on the river 
Somme, by which he was enabled to hold Amiens 
in check. 

The firm and fearless mind of Henry IV. braved* 
the Spaniards, the league, and those French nobles 
who sought to dismember the kingdom : before these 
accumulated difficulties his courage quailed not ; but 
he was extremely embarrassed how to act, to retain 
the confidence of the Catholics. Since the autumn of 
1589, he had promised to convene an assembly in 
which he might be instructed in the doctrines of the 
Church of Rome : he had excused himself for not 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 277 

having redeemed that pledge, in consequence of the 
war, the battle of Ivry, and the siege of Paris. The 
patience of the Roman Catholics had now become 
exhausted, and Bordeaux sent its first-president and 
two counsellors to beseech his majesty to make a 
final resolution. Henry was compelled to steer a 
middle course : to displease the Roman Catholics 
was tantamount to exclusion from the throne ; to 
break with the Calvinists, who had befriended him 
in adversity, would have been an act of the blackest 
ingratitude ; moreover, in the actual state of his af- 
fairs, it would have been impolitic, as the king re- 
quired money and troops from Elizabeth of England, 
and the Protestant princes of Germany. These 
matters he represented to the leaders of the Roman 
Catholic party, and they felt their force : to conciliate 
them, he appointed the Duke of Nevers, who had 
abandoned the league, Governor of Champagne ; the 
Baron Biron, son of the marshal, high-admiral ; and 
recalled the Duke of Epernon. 

Having succeeded by these means in postponing 
his confession of faith, the king despatched the 
Viscount of Turenne to England, who prevailed on 
the queen to advance one hundred thousand crowns, 
and send six thousand men into Brittany, to 
strengthen the Prince of Dombes against the Duke 
of Mercceur and the Spaniards. This negociation 
being concluded, he proceeded to Germany, and 
there raised four thousand horse and eight thousand 
foot, with artillery and ammunition, who were to 
march to the aid of Henry, under the command of 
Christiern, Prince of Anhalt. 



278 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

While Henry IV. was thus quieting discontent 
at home, and preparing to draw succour from abroad, 
Mayenne began to experience the difficulties which 
always beset the leader of a party. Many of the 
princes and nobles, whose pretensions were equal to 
his own, continually demanded money of him to 
pay their soldiers, and he did not dare to refuse 
them, lest they should join the royalists. These 
burthens, of course, fell on the people, who mur- 
mured. The Spanish agents secretly inflamed po- 
pular dissatisfaction, complaining of the Duke's 
bad management, with a view to diminish his per- 
sonal authority, and render him dependent on the 
court of Madrid. Mayenne was also embroiled 
with the Duke of Lorraine, who had grown jealous 
at the advancement of a younger branch of his fa- 
mily. He had also quarrelled with the Duke of 
Nemours, Governor of Paris, who had defended it 
bravely. Nemours claimed full power within its 
walls ; this Mayenne disputed, and having of his 
own will and pleasure appointed the mayor and 
other magistrates, Nemours resigned his command 
in disgust, and retired to Lyons. The Duchess of 
Guise complained that her son was not ransomed 
from prison, and on that ground imputed blame to 
Mayenne, though the king had positively refused 
him his liberty on any terms. The duke was also 
at variance with Mercceur, for attempting to dis- 
member the empire, and for holding a private cor- 
respondence with the Spaniards. 

Such was the state of affairs at the commence- 
ment of 1591. The army of the league attacked 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 2J9 

St. Denis, but was repulsed, and the commander, 
the Chevalier D'Aumale, was slain. 1 The king at- 
tempted to surprise Paris, but his stratagem was 
discovered and defeated. On the 16th of February 
he laid siege to Chartres, which resisted till the 1 9th 
of April, when it surrendered, principally through 
the skill and valour of Chatillon, 2 of whom Sully 
speaks in terms of the highest praise. On the other 
hand, Mayenne took Chateau Thierri. 

The king having fixed his head-quarters at Mantes, 
convened his council, and the most eminent noble- 
men and gentlemen of his party, and stated to them, 
that in justice to the Huguenots, and as a mark of 
confidence to the Queen of England and the Pro- 
testant princes of Germany, he intended to revive the 
last edict of pacification granted by Henry III. in 
favour of Calvinism. There was but little opposi- 
sition to this measure, for as Spain and Rome sent 
troops to the league, the royalists were compelled to 
seek foreign succour; and that succour would have 
been doubtful, and perhaps soon removed, had a dis- 
position been shown of withholding concessions from 
the Huguenots. The Archbishop of Bourges, the 

1 Those who were curious observed that the chevalier fell dead 
before the door of an inn, the sign of which was the Royal 
Sword ; and they esteemed it a still greater prodigy, that 
upon being laid upon the bier, in the church of the friars of St. 
Denis, his body, on the following night, was gnawed and 
mangled by moles. — Davila, p. 490. 

2 Chatillon, Francis de Coligny, son of the famous admiral, 
and himself Admiral of Guienne. He died ill the year of this 
siege, 1591, in his castle of Louve, at thirty years of age. The 
Calvinist party had a great loss in him, for it was believed, 
that if he had lived he would even have excelled his father. — 
De Thou, 



280 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

Bishop of Nantes, and other Catholics, merely stipu- 
lated that this indulgence should be temporary, and 
subject to revision, when peace was proclaimed, and 
all the differences of religion finally accommodated. 
The Cardinal of Vendome, however, pretended to 
be much scandalized at this proposal : he was ne- 
phew to the deceased Cardinal of Bourbon, and was 
secretly plotting to obtain the throne for himself, in 
the event of Henry not abjuring Calvinism. His 
plans were made known by the interception of let- 
ters he had written to the pope, praying his holiness 
to recognize him as king. Henry did not punish 
this treason as it deserved, but he nipped it in the 
bud, by bestowing titles and pensions on the advisers 
of the young cardinal, by whom he was then de- 
serted. 

Sixtus V. had been succeeded by Urban VII., 
who only reigned thirteen days. He was replaced 
by Gregory XIV., after long and stormy debates in 
the conclave. While these lasted, the Duke of 
Luxemburg, the royal ambassador at Rome, wrote a 
circular letter to each of the cardinals, exposing the 
intrigues of the Spanish council, and the arts they 
were employing to gain absolute controul over the 
league. " It is the work," said he, " of the old 
enemy of France, who makes a pretext of religion to 
tear the kingdom asunder, that he may the more 
easily invade it, when he has exhausted its means of 
defence by civil war. Almost all the French nobles 
and the principal magistrates are attached to the king : 
he has promised to receive instruction, and he will do 
so, if no misplaced severity frustrates the goodness of 
his intentions. Remember the fatal changes which in- 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 281 

discreet zeal has made religion undergo in Germany 
and England, and dread the schism which must 
inevitably break out in France, if you attempt to 
force the Catholics to abandon the king." The Duke 
of Luxemburg; wrote in the same terms to the new 
pope, immediately after his election, imploring him 
to suspend his judgment, till the French princes and 
nobles had fully explained to him the state of the 
country. 

In spite of these remonstrances the intrigues of 
Spain and the league had already gained the mind of 
Gregory. Instead of waiting the arrival of the so- 
lemn embassy, prepared in France to visit Rome, he 
began to raise troops, and money for their pay, and 
gave the command of his little army, composed of 
twelve hundred Italian horse and two thousand foot, 
to which were adjoined four thousand Swiss mer- 
cenaries, to his nephew, the Duke of Montemarciano. 
At the same time he sent to France, in the capacity 
of legate, Marsilio Landriano, a Milanese prelate, 
who was a tool of the Spaniards, and fanatically at- 
tached to ultramontane maxims. Arrived at Rheims, 
the legate read the papal monitory addressed to the 
prelates, nobles, and magistrates, who followed the 
king's party : the clergy were expressly commanded, 
under pain of excommunication and the loss of their 
benefices, to withdraw from all places which recog- 
nized the rights of Henry of Bourbon; it then exhorted 
and admonished the nobility and people to pursue 
the same conduct, but the concluding paragraph 
converted the admonitions and exhortations into po- 
sitive commands. This insulting monitory the nun- 
cio had the imprudence to publish, though against 



282 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

the advice of Mayenne and Villeroi. It was, how- 
ever, accepted by the parliament of Paris. The 
king denounced Landriano, and cautioned his sub- 
jects against complying with a monitory which in- 
volved the integrity and privileges of the Gallican 
church. It was indignantly rejected by the parlia- 
ments of Tours and Chalons, who ordered it to be 
publicly burned ; and they passed a decree, declaring 
obedience to the pope, in this particular, high-trea- 
son. The estates of all who observed it were 
threatened with confiscation, and even the clergy 
protested that the canons of the church did not 
oblige them to abandon their flocks in such troubled 
times, but rather protect them in the hour of danger. 
With the exception of fanatics and bigots, who con- 
sidered a papal mandate as binding on their con- 
sciences as a divine mission, every good Frenchman 
was disgusted at the audacity of the pontiff, and even 
Mayenne began to distrust the nuncio, who inclined 
openly to the cause of Spain. 

While Rome was thus attacking Henry with 
spiritual arms, the king laid siege to Noyon, and cap- 
tured it, while Lesdiguieres, the royalist governor of 
Dauphiny, defeated the troops of the Duke of Savoy. 
The Duke of Montpensier was eminently successful 
in Normandy. At this time, Charles of Lorraine, 
son of Henry, Duke of Guise, assassinated at Blois, 
escaped from Tours, and his presence in the camp of 
the league added greatly to the embarrassment of 
Mayenne, for it raised up another pretender to the 
throne he was struggling to secure for himself. l 

1 " The flight of the Duke of Guise will ruin the league," 
said Henry. The duke's valet, having found means to amuse 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 283 

At this juncture Turenne joined the king with 
six thousand Germans, having the Prince of Anhalt 
at their head. Three thousand English, under the 
command of the Earl of Essex, landed at Boulogne, 
and were incorporated with the division of Marshal 
Biron. Count Philip of Nassau reinforced the roy- 
alists with a Dutch fleet of fifty sail, and two thou- 
sand five hundred soldiers. Henry was now in pos- 
session of an army of forty thousand men, with 
which he laid siege to Rouen, on the 1st of October, 
1591. The city was commanded by the Marquis 
Villars, well known for his courage and capacity : 
he had shut himself up within the walls with the 
son of Mayenne, both resolved to bury themselves 
under the ruins rather than surrender. 

Besiegers and besieged performed prodigies of val- 
our, and the king exposed his person with a fearless- 
ness that bordered on rashness. Yillars rivalled 
him in heroism, and distinguished himself by fre- 
quent sallies from the town. Such was his admir- 
ation of Henry, that he openly exclaimed, " By 
heavens, this prince deserves a thousand crowns for 
his valour. I am sorry that, by a better religion, 
he does not inspire us with as strong an inclination 
to gain him new ones, as to detain from him his 
own ; but it shall never be said that I have failed to 
attempt in my own person, what a great king has 

Itouvrai and the guards, either by play or drinking, let his 
master down from the highest window in the castle, in the mid- 
dle of the day, with a rope, by which he afterwards descended 
himself. The duke got into a small boat, which carried him to 
the other side of the river, where two horses waited for him. — 
Mathieu, torn. ii. p. 81. Cayet, torn. ii. p. 465. 



284 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

performed in his." 1 In this siege the baron Biron, 
son of the marshal, and the brave Crillon, were 
severely wounded; Sir Walter Devereux, brother 
to the Earl of Essex, was slain ; and the chivalrous 
Essex challenged Villars to single combat, who de- 
clined the offer on account of his superior rank. 

No decisive advantage was gained, on either side, 
when, on the 14th of January, 1592, intelligence 
was received in the royalist camp that the Duke of 
Parma was marching to the relief of the beleaguered 
city. The king at once quitted Rouen with about 
ten thousand cavalry, leaving the rest of his army 
with Marshal Biron to prosecute the siege. Henry 
having imprudently advanced with only nine hun- 
dred horse, was met by the enemy at Aumale, on 
the confines of Picardy and Upper Normandy, and 
had not the Duke of Nevers come promptly to his 
assistance, he must have been slain or captured. He 
was wounded in this skirmish, the only wound he 
ever received in battle, and forced to retire to 
Dieppe, till his strength was restored. The Duke 
of Parma took up his quarters at Aumale on the 
following day, at which the French nobles of the 
league murmured, observing, that if he would ad- 
vance, the war would be finished at a single blow ; 
but the Duke answered, that what he had done 
he would do again under similar circumstances, be- 
cause it had been dictated by reason, having till 
then believed that he was opposed to the captain- 
general of an army, and not to a mere captain of 

1 Sully, c. iv . 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 285 

light-horse, which he now knew the King of Na- 
varre to be. * 

The army of the league, advancing by slow 
marches, laid siege to Neufchatel, which only made 
a short defence. They then drew nigh to Rouen. 
The king raised the siege after having lost three 
thousand men, and presenting himself in front of the 
Duke of Parma, offered him battle. The Spanish 
general affected to receive it with alacrity, but he 
extricated himself by a stratagem. Under cover of 
a front of infantry, he drew up his cavalry in order 
of battle, seeming to wait only to be attacked, but 
he sent all his horse and baggage through denies in 
his rear, screened by hills and bushes : the front of 
infantry, which had no depth, following the same 
route, the whole army disappeared in twenty-four 
hours, to the astonishment and vexation of the 
king. 

The relief of Rouen, effected with so much ease, 
and without a pitched battle, raised the hopes of the 
league ; but though the siege was raised, the pas- 
sage of the Seine down to the ocean was not free, 
Caudebec being in the hands of the royalists. To 
attack this town was the next operation resolved 
upon ; and while the Duke of Parma was reconnoi- 
tring the fortifications, he was struck with a musket- 
ball in the arm, w^hich entered at the elbow and 
passed down almost to the hand ; three incisions 
were made before the ball was extracted, which 

1 Henry having sent to the Duke of Parma to ask his opinion 
of his retreat from Aumale, the duke replied, f * that it was in- 
deed a very fine one, but that, for his part, he never engaged in 
any place whence he was obliged to retire." 



286 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

caused fever, and the general was confined to his 
bed. However, Caudebec surrendered to May- 
enne. ' 

Henry again brought his army into the field, con- 
sisting of eighteen thousand foot, and eight thousand 
horse. By the occupation of Caudebec the con- 
federates were shut up in the peninsula of Caux, 
being enclosed towards the sea by Eu, Arques, and 
Dieppe, places strongly garrisoned, while the navi- 
gation of the Seine was still impeded by Quillebceuf 
and the Dutch fleet : all that Henry had now to do, 
was to secure the entrance towards the river Somme, 
which alone led from the peninsula into Normandy 
and Picardy. The two armies were within a quarter 
of a mile of each other. Henry made several attacks 
on the entrenched camp of the leaguers, in all of which 
he was successful : he cut off the supplies, and there 
was every prospect of his opponent's being compelled 
to capitulate ; but the Duke of Parma extricated 
himself from his perilous position by a masterly and 
unexpected manoeuvre. With infinite diligence he 
constructed a bridge of boats, and crossed the river 
with his whole army, ammunition, and baggage, in 
the night. He marched hurriedly on, reached St. 

» During this siege the Catholics in the royal camp, attribut- 
ing all their reverses to the heresy of the king, formed the de- 
sign of disinterring the Huguenots, who had been buried indis- 
criminately with the Catholics, and leaving their carcases a prey 
to the crows. Two circumstances hindered the execution of this 
project, as contrary to religion as to nature, — the difficulty of 
distinguishing the bodies, and fear lest the Protestants, who 
composed two-thirds of the army, should think their honour en- 
gaged to revenge upon the living Catholics an outrage which 
would have exceeded all others. — Sully, 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 287 

Cloud in four days, passed Paris, and never slack- 
ened his pace till he reached Chateau Thierri in 
Champagne, whence the road to Flanders was se- 
cure. The king, perceiving that the prize had 
escaped him, disbanded his forces, only retaining 
three thousand horse and six thousand foot, with 
which he pursued the enemy to the confines of 
Picardy and Champagne. 

The retreat of the Duke of Parma highly dis- 
pleased the league. He was bitterly reproached by 
Mayenne. The duke justified his conduct : he 
claimed for himself the honour of having twice de- 
feated the king, and rescued from him the two prin- 
cipal cities of France. He praised the generosity of 
Spain, who had defrayed almost the whole expenses 
of the war, while the leaguers only sought to lay 
the foundations of their private fortunes : finally, he 
expressed his resolution to evacuate France and re- 
turn to Flanders, lest the affairs of that country 
should fall into ruin through his absence among a 
people ungrateful for his services. He left behind 
him a body of Spanish troops under De Rosne, with 
orders that he was to obey the Duke of Mayenne, 
who at once assaulted and took Ponteau de Mer. 
Villars sallied out of Rouen and laid siege to Quil- 
lebceuf ; but he was repulsed by Crillon. De Rosne 
took Epernay ; Marshal Biron, in attempting to re- 
gain it was shot through the body by a cannon-ball, 
and died without utterering a word. l His son, the 

1 It is Davila who says he was shot through the body, p. 559. 
Bran tome, in his panegyric of this marshal, says that the ball took 
off his head. He was almost as famous for his learning as his 
abilities in war. De Thou greatly regrets the loss of his com- 



288 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

Baron de Biron, eager to avenge the death of his 
father, scaled the walls, when the town surrendered ; 
but he was severely wounded. 

While the war was thus being prosecuted, the 
king was negociating with Rome, and Mayenne 
preparing to assemble the States-general to pro- 
ceed to the election of a king. On this last point 
all the parties composing the league were agreed, 
and it had become necessary, in some shape or other, 
to meet this wish. The states accordingly were 
convened at Paris. Never was an assembly more 
tumultuous. The plans proposed, the debates that 
arose on them, the objections started, were charac- 
teristics of the various passions by which ambition, 
avarice, and intolerance were swayed ; they were 
contradictory, ridiculous, and absurd. The King of 
Spain, who proposed to marry his daughter to the 
sovereign who might be elected, offered large assist- 
ance in men and money. But he was not in a con- 
dition to fulfil his promises. There were no longer, 
great captains in his service. The Duke of Parma 
was dead, 1 and Maurice of Nassau, who defended 

mentaries. He commanded in chief in seven battles, and bore 
as many scars of the wounds he had received in them. He was 
god-father to Cardinal Richelieu, who was named after him. 
The city of Gontaut, in Agenois, gave its name to this family. 
His loss was severely felt, and Henry IV. wept for him as for a 
brother. The marshal was killed on the 26th July, 1 592, in the 
sixty-fifth year of his age. 

1 He died at Arras, in the abbey of St. Vaast. The Span- 
iards were accused of having poisoned him through jealousy ; but 
the wound he received in Normandy during the preceding year, 
joined to the malformation of his body, was the only cause of his 
death, and it was acknowledged when he was opened. His body 
was carried through Lorraine to Italy, attended by one hun- 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 289 

the liberty of the United Provinces, made a diversion 
favourable to Henry. Moreover, Philip, by pro- 
posing to marry his daughter to the king whom the 
states might elect, made an enemy of Mayenne, for 
he, being married, would have been excluded from 
the throne. 

However, had the states selected a king sanc- 
tioned by the pope and supported by Philip, Henry 
would have been placed in a most critical position. 
The people might have accepted a chief so nominated, 
in the hope of securing tranquillity. Such a sove- 
reign would have possessed all the outward signs of 
legitimacy, except hereditary descent ; and that de- 
ficiency would have been counterbalanced by a 
national vote, blessed and hallowed by the supreme 
pontiff. He would have been formidable ; at least 
his election would have protracted the war. It was, 
however, difficult for so many leaders, who wished 
to parcel out the kingdom among themselves, to 
agree on the choice of a master ; had they nominated 
one, it would have been equally difficult for him to 
satisfy the claims of rival nobles. These conflicting- 
interests proved highly favourable to Henry, for 
they destroyed all unity of action among his ene- 
mies. 

In this confused state of things, Henry only de- 
sired to gain time to execute a project he had long 
meditated, the object of which was to tranquillize 

dred and sixty horse, caparisoned in black. He was only forty 
eight years of age. He complained of having been twice poi- 
soned by the Spaniards, if we may believe D'Aubigne, who de- 
clares that the Italians were so fully persuaded of it, that from 
that time they never could endure the Spaniards. 

U 



290 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

France. To embarrass the deliberations of the 
States with new obstacles was his policy, and with 
thi3 view- he invited them to send deputies to confer 
with him. This proposition was made to the states 
by the Roman Catholic nobles attached to the royal 
cause, and though vehemently opposed by the Span- 
ish ambassador, the legate, and the fanatics, it was 
accepted, for Mayenne saw clearly that it would 
disconcert the views of Philip, and leave a chance 
still open for himself. Surenne was fixed upon as 
the place of conference. 

While these negociations were being carried on, 
Sully intercepted a correspondence between Mayenne 
and Philip, which strongly influenced the conduct of 
the king. These documents possess great historical 
interest, as they throw light on Mayenne' s designs, 
the spirit of the league, and the politics of Spain. 
The following is the substance of these dispatches. 

The Duke of Mayenne proposed to subject the 
league to the pope, and put it under the King of 
Spain's protection, on certain conditions, which re- 
garded the party in general, and himself in parti- 
cular. It was stipulated by Mayenne, that the 
King of Spain should furnish and maintain in the 
service of the league, an army of sixteen thousand 
foot, and three thousand horse ; in which army 
there should be two thousand five hundred foot, and 
five hundred troopers, all French, of whom the Duke 
of Mayenne was to have the sole disposal ; that the 
number of these troops should be augmented, as 
occasion required ; that Mayenne should have the 
chief command, with the title of Lieutenant- General 
of the kingdom, till a king of France was elected ; 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 291 

that this election should be made at a general con- 
ference, by which the states-general were intended ; 
that till this election was made and confirmed, the 
pension which Spain already paid to the general 
should be increased one half more, besides one hun- 
dred thousand crowns to be paid immediately, and 
one hundred thousand livres after the ratification of 
the treaty, in expectation of which they should be- 
gin by putting him (Mayenne) into actual possession 
of Burgundy ; that after the nomination of the 
future king, the duke should be continued in the 
government of the state, with the title of Lieutenant- 
General ; that then, and not before, he should yield 
up the city of Soissons to the Spaniards, because it 
was at present the only place of security he held for 
himself in France ; that if he found insurmountable 
objections, either in the election of a future king, 
probably from the King of Navarre, or in the in- 
vasion or keeping of Burgundy, the King of Spain 
should make the duke amends by an annual pension 
of three hundred thousand livres, for the possessions 
he might lose in France, which pension should never 
be lessened or taken away, whatever agreement 
might be made between the King of Spain and the 
acknowledged King of France, but be continued to 
his heirs for ever ; that Spain should cancel all the 
Duke of Mayenne' s debts, or those of the king 
elected with the consent of that crown, if he was 
a native of France ; that suitable rewards should 
be given to other principal officers of the league ; 
these last were not specified, for Mayenne was 
less solicitous about the interests of others than 
his own, or he might have thought that this article 

u 2 



292 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

admitted of easy settlement, because, if money were 
wanting, the lords would be satisfied with pensions, 
dignities, or governments. 

To these proposals the Archduke of Austria an- 
swered in the name of Philip, that the King of Spain 
was well pleased with the title of Defender of the 
League, and would consider himself as chief of the 
league ; that he would always be ready to grant 
whatever supplies were demanded against the King 
of Navarre, and even more than might be demanded ; 
that he would send into Picardy alone the nineteen 
thousand men already mentioned, (it is easy to see 
with what design, — this province bordering the Low 
Countries,) besides those he might send into other 
parts of the kingdom. The archduke did not seem 
to be so much alarmed about Burgundy as the Duke 
of Mayenne, because the council of Spain had dis- 
covered that this general, having demanded the 
government of that province for himself, would have 
been glad to have employed all the troops in that 
quarter. Upon this article the archduke only 
granted wherewithal to raise a thousand German 
foot, and maintain three hundred horse. He added, 
however, that if the whole force of the war was 
turned against that province, his Catholic majesty 
would not refuse to send thither a considerable body 
of troops ; and, without doubt, in this particular he 
would have kept his word. As to what regarded 
Mayenne personally, Philip appeared less liberal. 
Of all the articles this was the most reduced. The 
king would make no addition to the monthly pen- 
sion, and would only allow the exclusive command 
of the two thousand infantry and five hundred 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 293 

troopers, so long as Mayenne was actually in the 
field. Upon all tlie other articles the archduke was 
silent. But he insisted on the immediate surrender 
of Soissons, as a preliminary to the whole contract, 
and as a security for the advances already made. 

These documents also alluded to third parties 
whose names were written in a disguised character ; 
but, after much laborious investigation, they were 
discovered to be the Abbe de Bellozanne, the two 
Durets, and the Abbe du Perron, all dependents on 
the Count of Soissons and the Cardinal of Bourbon, 
and particularly attached to the latter. This third 
party called themselves " The Politicals," pro- 
fessing to stand neuter between the royalists and the 
leaguers, and valuing themselves on being too good 
Frenchmen to suffer the dominion of the Spaniards, 
and too zealous for the Romish religion to receive a 
Protestant king. Their principal object was to ex- 
clude every foreign prince, the King of Navarre as a 
heretic, and the Duke of Mayenne as unconnected 
with the blood royal. Sully positively declares that 
they intended to get rid of the two latter by the 
sword or poison, after which they anticipated no 
difficulty in making the Cardinal of Bourbon king, 
and not entirely to disoblige Spain, they proposed 
to obtain a papal dispensation, and marry him to the 
infanta. l 

The detection of this treason among the members 
of his own family, sensibly affected the king. He 
scarcely knew on whom he could depend. The 
Catholic royalists, restless and uneasy at the post- 

i Sully, c. v. 



294 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

ponement of his recantation, exhibited symptoms of 
throwing off their allegiance. The Huguenots 
dreaded lest he should abandon them, aud became sul- 
len and discontented. The king recollected the dying 
warning of Henry III., that he would never be 
sovereign of France, unless he reconciled himself to 
the church ; nor was he unmindful of the advice of 
the brave La Noue, himself a sincere Protestant. 
Under these circumstances he opened his mind to 
Sully, confiding to that faithful friend his destiny 
and his crown. He advised his royal master to re- 
cant, and by that step baffle the league and Spain. 
Henry resolved to follow his recommendation. 

The conference was now~ sitting at Surenne. The 
Archbishop of Bourges presented himself as envoy 
from the king ; the Archbishop of Lyons was the 
orator of the league. Passports and safe conducts 
had been given on both sides. A truce was pub- 
lished on the 3rd of May, 1593, to extend four 
leagues round Paris, and the same distance round 
Surenne : this single circumstance so delighted the 
Parisians, who had been for several years imprisoned 
within their walls, that it contributed greatly to 
kindle a desire for permanent peace among the great 
majority of the inhabitants. In fact, both parties 
were agreed on one point, that peace was necessary 
to raise France from her present miseries and avert 
future ruin ; but they disputed as to the mode of 
accomplishing their object. The deputies of the 
league held, that religion was the basis of all govern- 
ment, and therefore exhorted the royalists to aban- 
don a heretic prince, and obey one approved of by 
the pope. On the other hand, it was contended that 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 295 

the foundation of government was the acknowledg- 
ment of a lawful prince, a Frenchman by birth, 
whose claims were founded on the law of the land ; 
they insisted that religion was a secondary consider- 
ation, for Christians had anciently obeyed many 
princes who were not only heretics, but schismatics, 
and also enemies and persecutors of the church, and 
that the most holy and most learned of the fathers of 
Christendom, nay even the apostles, had taught and 
sanctioned that obedience. This last doctrine the 
Bishop of Lyons most energetically denounced ; in 
reply, the Archbishop of Bourges cited the text of 
St. Paul. Many sittings were spent in disputes 
of this character, in which the most remarkable 
propositions were, whether the church was in the 
state, or the state in the church, — whether a good 
Catholic could conscientiously obey a heretic, — and 
whether power, not approved of by the vicar of 
Jesus on earth, was legitimate. Each party of 
course claimed the victory, and neither were satis- 
fied. 

The Spanish agents profited by this disunion of 
sentiment to carry into effect their own policy. They 
began to scoff at the conference as incapable of ar- 
riving at any result. It was, therefore, arranged 
that a private meeting should be held at the legate's 
palace, to which the royalists were not to be ad- 
mitted, and it took place on the 19th of May. There 
the Duke of Feria, ambassador from Madrid, pro- 
posed the Infanta Clara Eugenia Isabella, daughter 
to his most Catholic majesty, as queen, arguing that 
the crown justly belonged to her, she being born of 



296 REIGN OF HENRY IV, 

Elizabeth, eldest daughter to Henry II., King 
of France. He extolled her virtues ; engaged that 
the whole power of Spain should be used to put her 
into possession of the throne ; promised the Prin- 
ces of Lorraine especially, and all the other lords 
and gentlemen of the party, the most ample gratifi- 
cations ; guaranteed the restoration of the church to 
its ancient splendour, and bound himself to reduce 
taxation and alleviate the burthens of the people. 

The Bishop of Senlis, though a bitter enemy to 
Henry IV., replied to the Duke of Feria by a most 
scornful and indignant speech. He said the Politi- 
cals were in the right, who had ever contended 
that the true interests of the state were sacrificed 
to an assumed zeal for religion ; that ambition 
moved the minds of men more than piety ; and he 
expressed his grief at hearing that doctrine, against 
which he had himself frequently preached, now 
openly avowed by the ambassador ; that thencefor- 
ward he should consider the Spaniards as wily as 
the Navarrois ; but he prayed them, for their own 
honour and the reputation of the holy union, to 
abandon the principles that had been propounded ; 
that for twelve hundred years, the kingdom of 
France had been ruled by men, according to the in- 
stitutions of the Salic law ; that it was not fitting 
now to transfer it to a woman, and thus subject the 
nation to the dominion of foreigners. This burst of 
patriotism, from one of the most furious of the 
leaguers, not only dismayed the Spaniards, but 
alarmed the whole assembly. Mayenne attempted 
an apology, excusing the bishop on account of the 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 297 

vehemence of his temper, but his speech told, and 
lowered the credit of Madrid. 1 

On the 26th of the month, the Spaniards made 
another attempt to carry their point. Having de- 
manded and obtained a public audience in the states, 
Juan Baptista Taxis proposed the infanta as queen, 
and was supported in a long speech by Inigo Men- 
doza, in w T hich he stated to the assembly, that 
though the crown belonged of right to the princess, 
yet she had condescended to accept it from them by 
election. The terms in which the proposition was 
worded, excited murmurs and general indignation; 
it was remarked that if females could inherit the 
throne, the kings of England had a preferable title 
to those of Spain, they being the first descended 
from daughters of France, and that the claims made 
by England in former times had caused tedious and 
sanguinary wars to sustain the Salic law. The de- 
puties, however, did not dare openly to break with 
Spain : they asked, in the event of the infanta being 

1 Roze, Bishop of Senlis, was the panegyrist of the assassin 
of Henry III. He was, however, (his prejudices aside,) a man 
of merit, an eloquent preacher, a profound theologian, Rector of 
the University of Paris, Grand-master of Navarre, and the es- 
teemed confidant of the courts of Rome and Spain ; his enemies 
have never reproached him with more than fanaticism, a crying 
evil indeed, which he pushed to excess. On signing the league, 
after his name he wrote these words: " Utinam qui profit sacra- 
mento, antecedat martyrin." However, his furious zeal made hut 
fe v proselytes at Senlis; the inhabitants always remained faith- 
ful to Henry III., in opposition to their bishop. In 1589 they 
sustained a sanguinary siege against the leaguers of Paris, and 
their town was perhaps the first in the kingdom to recognize 
Henry IV., by a solemn deputation sent on the second day of 
his reign. 



298 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

elected, who was to be her husband ; Mendoza an- 
swered, Ernest, Archduke of Austria, the emperor s 
brother. This proposition was instantly and unani- 
mously rejected ; the whole assembly declared that 
they would never acknowledge a king who was not 
a native of France. The Spanish negociators then 
waived this point, and pledged themselves that the 
princess should marry a French nobleman, to be 
named and elected king within six months. 

Henry IV. was soon apprised of this scheme, and 
sought by every means in his power to frustrate the 
designs of the states through the conference of 
Surenne. The last proposal of the Spaniards had 
rendered his position more critical than ever, for 
each of the Roman Catholic royalists, thinking 
himself the most eligible husband for the infanta, 
began to swerve from his allegiance, to gain favour 
with the Duke of Feria and Mendoza. Even the 
members of the royal family were tempted by the 
golden bait, especially the Cardinal of Bourbon, the 
Count of Soissons, the Prince of Conti, and the 
Duke of Montpensier. Under these circumstances, 
Henry determined at once to recant, and the Arch- 
bishop of Bourges stated to the conference that the 
king, touched by divine inspiration, had acknow- 
ledged his errors, and would, in a few days, pub- 
licly enter into the bosom of the church. This de- 
claration embarrased the deputies of the league, and 
the Archbishop of Lyons, fearing lest it might dis- 
unite the confederates, promptly answered, that he 
would sincerely rejoice if the king's conversion were 
real and not simulated ; but whether it were sincere 
or pretended, he insisted that the deputies could not 



REIGN OF HEXRY IV. 299 

act upon it, as the matter belonged exclusively to 
the papal jurisdiction ; therefore he contended that 
the king must be deemed a relapsed heretic until 
he had received absolution from the pope. The 
Archbishop of Bourges, without attempting to con- 
trovert this principle, presented a written document 
to the conference, which contained these three pro- 
posals : first, a notice of the king's conversion ; 
secondly, terms for the immediate settlement of re- 
ligion, to be carried into effect, if approved of, after 
his public recantation ; thirdly, a cessation of arms, 
till the answer of the pope had been received. The 
deputies were disposed to accept these propositions, 
but the Spanish agents protested against them ; they 
at once pledged themselves that the infanta should 
marry one of the princes of Lorraine, and pressed 
for her immediate election. To this the leaguers de- 
murred, for if she were once elected, she might re- 
fuse the husband proposed, and espouse a member of 
the house of Austria, or even a Spaniard. The Duke 
of Mayenne also opposed it, he being a married man, 
and thus excluded from the throne, and he knew 
that his sons would not have been preferred to the 
elder branches of his family. It was ultimately 
resolved, after many debates, not to accept the king's 
proposals, till he had received absolution from the 
pope. 

Henry now determined to try the effect of a re- 
newal of hostilities, and laid siege to Dreux, a town 
about sixteen leagues from Paris, on the 7th of June, 
1593. On the 8th of July it surrendered. This 
conquest dismayed the leaguers. The Spanish en- 
voys, finding that matters were proceeding to ex- 



300 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 



tremities, now offered the infanta to the young Duke 
of Guise. Mayenne was confounded, and expressed 
his doubts of their authority to make such a propo- 
sal; they produced the signature of Philip. The 
lieutenant-general then saw that all his schemes of 
ambition were dashed to the ground. Jealous of his 
nephew, he used every argument to fill him with 
distrust, and prevailed on him to stipulate that he 
should be elected king at the same time that the 
infanta was elected queen ; that the election should 
be kept secret till the marriage was consummated ; 
that in case the infanta died first, the Duke of Guise 
should remain king, and govern the kingdom alone ; 
that if she were left a widow, she should be obliged 
to take a husband from the house of Lorraine ; that, 
if she had no issue, the eldest of the Duke of Guise's 
brothers should succeed. ] Many other clauses were 
added, guaranteeing power and emolument to May- 
enne and his family. 

The lieutenant-general hoped that the very ex- 
travagance of his demands would cause their rejec- 
tion ; but he was mistaken. The Spaniards most 
readily granted all he asked, for, the election of the 
infanta once secured, they intended to contrive 
various excuses to evade their engagements. May- 
enne, thus again disconcerted, intrigued in favour of 
the Cardinal of Bourbon. He pointed out to the 
deputies the danger of violating the Salic law, spoke 
slightingly of the present power of Spain, drained of 
its resources by the war in Flanders, and argued that 
all the royalist Catholics would support the Car- 

i Davila, p. 610. 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 301 

dinal, of whom the pope dare not disapprove. These 
arguments prevailed, for the people were warmly 
attached to the Salic institutions. This plan, how- 
ever, Mayenne had no sooner formed, than he en- 
tirely changed his policy, and determined to convene 
the parliament. The president Le Maistre, a man 
of good intentions, and who had only followed the 
league from religious motives, fearing that the king- 
dom might fall into the hands of foreigners, caused 
the following decree to be published. 

" Upon the propositions already made to the 
court of parliament by the Procureur-General, 
and the business taken into consideration at the 
meeting of the counsellors of the several courts, the 
said parliament not having, as it never had, any 
other intention than to maintain the Roman Catho- 
lic Apostolic religion, and the state and crown of 
France under the protection of a most Christian 
Catholic French king, has ordered, and hereby does 
order, that this day, after dinner, the president Le 
Maistre, accompanied by a good number of the coun- 
sellors of this parliament, shall make remonstrance 
to my lord, the Duke of Mayenne, Lieutenant-Gen- 
eral of the state and crown of France, in presence of 
the princes and officers of the crown, who at this 
present moment are in this city, that no treaty ought 
to be made for transferring the crown into the hands 
of foreign princes or princesses ; that the fundamen- 
tal laws of the kingdom ought to be observed, and 
the decrees made by the parliament about declaring 
a Catholic French king be executed ; that the said 
Duke of Mayenne ought to use the authority that 
has been given to him, to hinder the crown from 



302 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

being, under pretext of religion, transferred into the 
hands of foreigners, against the laws of the kingdom : 
moreover, that he ought to provide, as soon as may 
be, for the repose of the people, on account of the ex- 
treme necessities to which they are reduced ; and in 
the mean time the said parliament has declared, and 
hereby does declare, all treaties now made, or which 
for the future may be made, for the establishment of 
any foreign prince or princess whatsoever, invalid, 
and of no force or effect whatsoever, as being in con- 
travention of the Salic law, and the other fundamen- 
tal laws of the kingdom." 1 

Of this decree Mayenne feigned disapprobation, 
though he was indeed the author of it ; it humbled 
the pretensions of Spain. The Parisians, fatigued 
with their long sufferings, eagerly desired a truce, as 
the precursor of a general peace, and so decided a 
moral change had been effected in public opinion, 
that the Spanish ambassadors were openly insulted, 
with shouts of derision when they appeared in the 
streets. All parties were now inclined to submit 
the differences of the kingdom to the conference of 
Surenne, and the recantation of the king was eagerly 
expected. The crisis was at hand, when he was 
absolutely compelled to submit to the church or for- 
feit the throne ; for the Catholic royalists felt, that 
while the strength of their own sect was being daily 
exhausted, France must ultimately be sacrificed to 
the heresy of the Huguenots, or the ambition of 
Spain. The Duke of Montpensier told Henry that 
all the princes were ready to forsake him, and that 

1 Davila, p. 611. 



REIGN OF HENRY IY. 303 

he must do so himself, though with poignant sorrow, 
but that he could not belie his conscience or peril 
his soul. The Count of Schomberg, secretly advised 
by Villeroi, stated to the king that Admiral Villars 
was then on his road to the Cardinal of Bourbon, 
with an offer of the crown. The secretary Revol 
confirmed this intelligence, and pointed out, in for- 
cible terms, that of two results one must inevitably 
follow ; either that the cardinal being elected 
king all the Catholics would follow him ; or, that 
the infanta being chosen with the Duke of Guise, 
the full strength of Spain would be exerted for 
his destruction. These arguments determined 
Henry no longer to delay the execution of the 
plan he had resolved upon : he invited several 
Roman Catholic divines to attend him at Mantes, 
and give him religious instruction : it was soon 
afterwards announced that he would go to mass at 
Saint Denis on the 25th of July, 1593. 

This determination was announced to the con- 
ference of Surenne by the Archbishop of Bourges ; 
but the Archbishop of Lyons, persisting in his op- 
position, denied the right of the deputies to acknow- 
ledge the king till he had received absolution from 
the pope. The cardinal-legate addressed letters 
monitory to all the priests of France, threatening 
them with excommunication and privation of their 
benefices, if they accepted the pretended conversion 
of the Bearnois, as he called the king, or attended 
the ceremony of his recantation. But these menaces 
were vain ; the obstacle of religion removed, all 
were willing to acknowledge Henry IV. except 
Mayenne and his personal friends and adherents ; and 



304 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

even the Duke of Guise told the Spanish envoys 
that his election would now prove ridiculous and 
dangerous. 

On the day appointed, the king, entirely clothed 
in white, arrived at the Cathedral of Saint Denis, 
the gates of which were closed. On the high chan- 
cellor knocking, they were opened, when the Arch- 
bishop of Bourges, sitting in his archiepiscopal chair, 
and arrayed in his pontifical habit, asked the king, 
who he was and what he required. His majesty 
answered, that he was Henry, King of France and 
Navarre, and that he demanded to be received into 
the bosom of the Roman Catholic church. On this 
the prelate inquired if he desired it from the bottom 
of his heart, and had truly repented of his former 
errors. Having said these words, the king protested 
on his knees, that he had truly repented of his for- 
mer errors, which he abjured and detested, and that 
he would live and die a Catholic in the Apostolic 
Roman church, which he would protect and defend 
at the hazard of his life. He then repeated the pro- 
fession of faith, was introduced into the church 
amidst salvos of artillery, made confession in private 
to the archbishop, then took his seat under the dais, 
or cloth of state, and heard the mass celebrated by 
the Bishop of Nantes. The ceremony being com- 
pleted, the king returned to his palace, followed by 
an immense concourse of people, who rent the air 
with shouts of Vive le Roi. 

The Jesuits, frantic with rage at the conversion of 
the king, and fearing that he might succeed in se- 
curing the throne, resolved on his assassination, and 
they found an instrument of their vengeance in Bar* 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 305 

riere, a native of Orleans, who followed the vocation 
of a waterman in the boats that trafficked on the 
Loire. " Barriere," says De Thou, " had been for- 
merly sent by the Duke of Guise to deliver Mar- 
garet, Queen of Navarre, while she was kept pri- 
soner by Marc de Beaufort, Marquis of Canillac, in 
whose custody she had been placed by the king. 
Having fulfilled his mission, he fell in love with a 
girl who was a confidential servant of the queen s : 
but having lost all hope of marrying her, he gave 
himself up to despair. Wishing only for death, he 
resolved to kill the king, an act which he was se- 
cretly told would be acceptable to God, and meri- 
torious in the eyes of men. With this design he 
passed from Auvergne to Lyons, and there spoke of 
his project to one of the grand- vicars of the arch- 
bishop, who was a Carmelite, next to a Capuchin, 
and lastly to a Dominican, a spy of Ferdinand, 
Grand-duke of Tuscany, to learn from them the in- 
tentions of the leaguers. The Dominican said, he 
would reflect upon the subject, and having told Bar- 
riere to call upon him the next day, he warned one 
of the gentlemen attached to the suite of Queen 
Louisa, widow of the deceased king, named Bran- 
caleon, whose attachment to Henry IY. he knew, 
to visit him at an appointed hour that he might see 
the assassin, and be able to identify him wherever he 
might meet him. On the next day, Seraphim Bar- 
chy, such was the name of the Dominican, received 
them both at his house, and after having given an 
ambiguous answer to the wretch, who was rushing 
headlong to his ruin, dismissed him ; he then dis- 
closed to Brancaleon the purport of Barriere's visit, 

x 



306 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

and exhorted him forthwith to set out for the army, 
whither the assassin was going, and anticipate the 
execrable design, by denouncing the villain to justice. 
Brancaleon instantly repaired to Nevers. There, 
fearing to be arrested on his journey, for though a 
truce had been proposed, it was not yet concluded or 
published, he drew a painting of the man he had 
seen, and having given it to a friend who was pro- 
ceeding to join the king by a different route, he 
himself took the route to Melun. The Duke of Ne- 
vers promised to pay his ransom if taken. 

" So much time was lost that Barriere had leisure 
to walk from Lyons to Paris. He first went to 
Christopher Aubry, curate of Saint Andre-des-Arcs, 
a native of Eu, a town belonging to Henrietta of 
Cleves, widow of the late Duke of Guise, and for 
that reason the more attached to the league. He 
declared to him his project, saying that some scru- 
ples had arisen in his mind since he had heard of the 
conversion of the King of Navarre, and asked the 
curate if he ought to persist in his design. The se- 
ditious priest encouraged and strengthened the 
original plan, declaring that the conversion of the 
king was feigned and simulated ; he persuaded him 
that the only means of securing religion was to kill the 
Bearnois ; he praised his zeal in so holy a cause, and 
to fortify his resolution, took him to the house of 
Yarade, rector of the Jesuits. Yarade removed 
every lingering scruple, by repeating the arguments 
of the curate, and caused another Jesuit, ignorant of 
the affair, to confess him. Barriere, thus excited, 
purchased a knife, which he so sharpened that it 
would cut on either side. 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 307 

" The assassin went to Saint Denis, where the 
king then was, and met him as he was coming out 
of the church, after having heard mass, surrounded 
by a dense crowd. Although very near to the 
royal person, a secret horror withheld his arm. 
From Saint Denis he followed the king to Gournay, 
Crecy, Champ-sur-Marne, and Brie-Comte-Robert, 
where he again confessed to a priest, and finally to 
Melun, where he had many opportunities of com- 
mitting the murder, of which he did not avail him- 
self. At length Brancaleon arrived, and caused him 
to be arrested by the officers of the sheriff. Bran- 
caleon was confronted with Barriere, who, remem- 
bering to have seen his accuser at the house of the 
Dominican at Lyons, admitted at once that he had 
intended to assassinate the king, but having heard, 
since that resolution was first formed, that his ma- 
jesty had returned into the bosom of the church, he 
had abandoned his project, and being disgusted with 
life, for the reasons already assigned, he now wished 
to retire among the capuchins; that he came to 
Paris with that intention, but being sent back to 
Orleans, the place of his birth, he had stopped on 
his road at Saint Denis, to receive money and letters 
of recommendation to Francis Balzac d'Entragues, 
formerly governor of Orleans. Such was his state- 
ment, which he delivered with great confidence, and 
an air of perfect security. When he was shown 
the double-edged knife, which was found on his 
person, he swore that he only used it to cut bread 
and meat for his meals. He poured forth a torrent of 
abuse against the heretics and the judges named by 
the king, and declared that he was ready to undergo 

x 2 



308 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

the most excruciating death ordered by those hang- 
men, for so he styled them. No one doubted that 
he really had intended to murder the king, and that 
he would have executed that intention, had not Pro- 
vidence interposed. He was unanimously con- 
demned to death by his judges, who sentenced him 
to the torture, that he might disclose the names of 
his accomplices and instigators. 

" His punishment was postponed to the following 
day, the government wishing to apprehend the priest 
who had confessed and absolved him at Brie-Comte- 
Robert. During this interval, persons ignorant of 
the sentence that had been pronounced, represented 
to him the enormity of the crime, and pointed out 
that those who contemplated the assassination of 
princes, exposed themselves to eternal damnation. 
The Dominican, Oliver Berenger, who had followed 
the king's party throughout the war, made Barriere 
feel all the heinousness of his guilt. When put to the 
torture, the conduct of this wretch was totally 
changed from what it had been when he stood before 
his judges ; and on hearing his sentence pronounced, 
he requested that the cords which bound him should 
be loosened, exclaiming aloud that he recognized his 
guilt, — that he was happy in not having executed 
his detestable project, — and was gratified in having 
fallen into the hands of his judges, whose decision, 
in depriving him of temporal life, had prevented 
his losing one infinitely more precious ; then, raising 
his eyes to heaven, he vowed his detestation of his 
crime and of those who had counselled it, and pe- 
rilled the salvation of his soul, by assuring him that 
if he died in the enterprize, his soul lifted up hy an- 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 309 

gels, would fly into the bosom of God, where it would 
enjoy eternal beatitude. He further said, that he had 
been warned, if seized in the attempt, not to name 
any of those who had instigated him to regicide, 
otherwise he would be sure of eternal damnation. 
Barriere underwent capital punishment, but the Je- 
suit Varade and the curate Audry, who were at 
Paris with the leaguers, remained unpunished." 

A truce of three months was at last agreed upon, 
to commence from the 1st of August, 1593. The 
king required a suspension of arms, that he might 
the more conveniently negociate w^ith Rome ; it was 
essential to Mayenne that he might make fresh ar- 
rangements with Spain ; it was most acceptable to 
the people, especially at that season of the year, 
when the harvest was ripe. Thus all, from various 
motives, assented to the armistice. The Duke of 
Nevers was sent as ambassador from the king to the 
pope to solicit his absolution ; Mayenne dispatched 
the Sieur de Montpezat to Philip, asking the hand 
of the infanta for his eldest son. Neither of these 
embassies were successful : the pope refused to re- 
cognize Henry IV., wishing to give the crown to a 
Catholic prince of the house of Bourbon, and marry 
him to the infanta : the court of Madrid persisted in 
their scheme of uniting her to the Duke of Guise. 
His holiness even commanded the Duke of Nevers 
not to aj)proach Rome, but he disobeyed the com- 
mand, and prostrating himself on his knees, im- 
plored absolution for his master. His request was 
sternly rejected. 

The truce of three months was now drawing to a 
close. Mayenne requested the king to prolong it, 



310 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

but he refused, well aware that the duke was not 
awaiting the resolutions of Rome, as he pretended, 
but supplies of men and money from Spain. When 
the armistice expired, Vitry, Governor of Meaux, hav- 
ing vainly demanded the means of paying his troops 
from Fuentes, the Spanish commander in the Low 
Countries, surrendered the town to Henry, who 
granted it many privileges, and confirmed Vitry in 
its government. D'Estrumel, Governor of Peronne, 
Montdidier, and Roye, gave up those towns, and 
Villeroi yielded Pontoise. Marshal de la Chastre 
placed Orleans and Bourges in the hands of the king, 
who confirmed him in the military rank, bestowed 
on him by Mayenne. Lyons also declared for 
Henry, and the city of Aix, in Provence, pressed by 
the Duke of Epernon, and not relieved, submitted to 
the crown. These defections alarmed Mayenne, 
who began to waver in his resistance : he had ap- 
plied to the pope for aid, who excused himself, say- 
ing that his resources were needed to defend Hun- 
gary against the Turks. Philip had given evasive 
promises of assistance, and the chiefs of the league 
felt that no dependence could be placed on the court 
of Madrid. Mayenne suspected the fidelity of Be- 
lin, Governor of Paris, and dismissed him in defiance 
of the parliament, appointing as his successor the 
Count of Brissac. In this, however, he deceived 
himself, for Brissac at once used his influence to 
place the capital in the power of the king. 

A short negociation effected this object. As the 
terms of submission it was stipulated that, in the 
city of Paris, its suburbs, and throughout a circuit 
of ten miles round them, no public service of religion 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 311 

should be permitted, except that of the Roman 
Catholic, according to the edicts of all former kings ; 
that the king should grant a general pardon to all, 
of whatever state or condition, who by word or deed 
had upheld the league, excepting those who had 
traitorously conspired against his person, or had been 
accessory to the murder of Henry III. ; that the 
property and persons of the citizens should be gua- 
ranteed against violence or plunder, and all privileges 
and immunities be confirmed, as they were wont to 
be in preceding reigns ; that all places, offices, and 
benefices, into which the Duke of Mayenne had put 
men when vacancies by death occurred, either of his 
own will, or jointly with the parliament, should be 
continued to the same persons so appointed, but with 
an obligation to take new patents from the king ; 
that all the present magistrates of the city should re- 
tain their functions, if they took the oath of alle- 
giance to his maj esty ; that every citizen who would 
not remain, should have liberty to quit the city with 
his effects ; that the cardinal-legate, the Cardinal 
Pelleve, and all the prelates and their servants, 
should be allowed freely to stay or quit, according to 
their pleasure ; that the Spanish ambassadors should 
receive passports and free conducts, to go whither 
they pleased ; that the soldiers of the garrison, 
whether French or foreigners, should march out of 
the city armed, drums beating, colours flying, and 
matches lighted ; that two hundred thousand crowns 
should be paid to the Count of Brissac, as a com- 
pensation for his losses ; that he should receive an 
annual pension of twenty thousand francs, be con- 
firmed in the rank of Marshal of France conferred 



312 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

upon him by Mayenne, and be appointed to the 
government of Corbie and Mantes. 1 

While the negociation for the surrender of Paris 
was progressing, Henry IV. was crowned at Char- 
tres by Nicholas De Thou, bishop of that city, on 
the 27th of February, 1594. The twelve peers of 
France, six ecclesiastical and six temporal, were pre- 
sent by their representatives. The Bishops of Char- 
tres, Nantes, Mans, Maillezays, Orleans, and Augiers, 
represented those of Rheims, Langues, Laon, Beau- 
vais, Noyon, and Chalons ; the representatives of 
the temporal peers were, the Prince of Conti for the 
Duke of Burgundy, the Count of Soissons for the 
Duke of Guienne, the Duke of Montpensier for the 
Duke of Normandy, the Duke of Luxemburg for the 
Earl of Flanders, the Duke of Retz for the Count 
of Toulouse, and the Duke of Ventadour for the 
Count of Champagne. The ambassadors of England 
and Yenice were present ; when the king came out 
of church, he touched three hundred persons for the 
evil. 2 

1 Pavila, p. 634. 
2 Two difficulties arose before the coronation took place, 
llheims was the city in which this ceremony was usually per- 
formed, but it was in the possession of the league; it was, how- 
ever, ascertained that in ancient times kings had been crowned 
in other places. The second objection related to the holy oil, 
brought down by an angel from heaven, for the consecration of 
Clovis, and preserved at Eheirns. After some inquiry it was 
discovered that there was another bottle of oil at Tours, in the 
monastery of the friars of Saint Martin, which also had been 
brought down from heaven to anoint that saint, when he fell 
down from a ladder and broke ail his bones. This bottle was 
brought to Chartres under an escort of four troops of horse, and 
its contents were used to consecrate Henry IV. — Davila, p. 634. 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 313 

On the 27th of March, 1594, Brissac opened the 
gates of Paris to the king, who traversed the city 
amidst shouts of Vive le Roi. A Spanish battalion 
alone resisted, but was speedily vanquished. The 
Bastille submitted after a siege of five days. The 
legate and the Spanish ambassadors quitted the city. 
Parliament annulled all the decrees and ordinances 
passed since 1588, the year in which Henry III. 
was assassinated. The members of the university 
took the oaths of fidelity and allegiance. Their ex- 
ample was followed by the curates of Paris; the 
Jesuits obstinately refused obedience, though the 
form of oath demanded of them was extremely 
moderate. It was worded in the following terms : 
" I promise and swear to live and die in the Catho- 
lic Apostolic, and Roman faith, under the rule of 
Henry IV., the most Christian and Catholic King of 
France and Navarre. I renounce all leagues and 
assemblies formed against his service, and I will not 
undertake any thing against his authority." 

A resistance so impolitic on the part of the Je- 
suits, only increased the storm gathering over their 
heads. They had shown themselves so openly the 
enemies of the king and state, and persisted so dar- 
ingly in their rebellion, that it was difficult to be- 
lieve they would omit any opportunity of assailing 
the life of the sovereign. These considerations de- 
cided the university, some days after the king's en- 
trance into the capital, to publish a decree, by which 
they cited the Jesuits before the courts of justice, 
with a view to their total expulsion from the coun- 
try. The affair was brought before the parliament. 
The curates of Paris intervened in favour of the 



314 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 



university. The petition presented to the parlia- 
ment narrated in detail all the crimes imputed to 
the Jesuits from their first establishment in France ; 
the university observed that, from that period they 
had never ceased to demand the banishment of the 
new sect, especially during the late troubles, " the 
Jesuits having been the tools of the Spanish faction, 
aiming at the dismemberment of the state, conspiring 
against the life of the king, and violating all order, 
political and hierarchical." The petition prayed for 
their expulsion from the whole of France, and bore 
the signature of James Amboise, rector of the uni- 
versity. This Amboise was the physician of Hen - 
rylV. 

The cause was pleaded on the 12th, 13th, and 16th 
of July, 1594. The famous advocate, Antony 
Arnauld, pleading for the university, pronounced a 
memorable oration, from which the following pas- 
sages are extracted, as specimens of his style and 
argument. 

" Was it not among the Jesuits," exclaimed Ar- 
nauld, " that the ambassadors and agents of the 
King of Spain held their most secret meetings ? was 
it not among them that Louchard, Ameline, Critce- 
Crome, and other murderers, hatched their diabolical 
conspiracies? was it not among them that, in 1590, 
it was resolved that nine-tenths of the population 
should starve with hunger, rather than the city 
should be surrendered to the king ? Who was pre- 
sident of the council of Sixteen, but the Jesuit 
Pigenat, the most ferocious tiger in Paris, who was 
so heart-broken at the bad success of the league that 
he became insane through vexation ? 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 315 

" Was it not in the college of Lyons and that of 
Paris, in the month of August, 1593, that the last 
resolution to assassinate the king was formed ? Does 
not the deposition of Barriere, executed at Melun, 
prove it ? and has not the fact struck terror into 
every true French heart ? Was it not the Jesuit 
Varade who assured the murderer that he could not 
perform a more meritorious act, and, to confirm him 
in his resolution, caused him to be confessed and ab- 
solved by another Jesuit whose name has not trans- 
pired ? Did not these impious and execrable assas- 
sins employ the most holy, the most solemn, the 
most sacred mysteries of the Christian religion, to 
massacre the first king in Christendom ? 

" I confess that a just indignation transports me 
beyond the bounds of forensic calmness, when I see 
that these traitors, villains, murderers, confessors 
and absolvers of regicide, are still among us, that 
they live in France and breathe its air. What do I 
say? Not only do they live among us, but they 
enter our palaces ; they are countenanced, they are 
caressed ; they form leagues, factions, alliances, and 
confederacies. 

" The humiliation of these brethren in the affair of 
Cardinal Borromeo is quite recent. One of them wished 
to assassinate that cardinal. Their order was at once 
extinguished, and they were expelled from Italy 
by Pope Pius V. And yet the Jesuits, who have 
attempted to murder the King of France, are not 
banished ! Is the life of a cardinal, then, more pre- 
cious than that of the eldest son of the church ? If 
this tribunal does not deliver us from these monsters, 



316 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

they will perpetrate even more evil than they have 
yet accomplished ! 

" I have ever before my eyes the assassin of 
Melun, and while the Jesuits, confessors of these as- 
sassins, remain in France, my mind will never know 
repose. When they are expelled, I shall have con- 
fidence, for then all the plots of Spain against my 
native land will prove harmless. All the brother- 
hoods, under the names of Jesus, Cordon, the Virgin, 
Cappe, Chapelet, Petit Collet, and others of a similar 
description, ought to be extinguished. Then the 
traitors who conspire against the state, would have 
no engine to promote their plans. 

" If the day of conservation is not less delightful 
than the day of birth, certainly the day on which the 
Jesuits shall be expelled from France, will be no less 
memorable than the foundation of our university ; 
and as Charlemagne, after having delivered Italy 
from the Lombards, Germany from the Hungarians, 
passed twice into Spain, subdued the Saxons, and 
founded our university, which, during eight hun- 
dred years, has been the most flourishing in the 
world, and has served as a refuge to men of letters 
banished from Italy, and persecuted in Greece, 
Egypt, and Africa, — in the same manner, Henry the 
Great, having expelled the Spaniards by force of 
arms and banished the Jesuits by your decree, will 
restore to our university its ancient splendour and 
primitive glory. 

" Consider, gentlemen, the point to which you 
have gone ; you have declared the Duke of May- 
enne and his adherents guilty of high-treason. You 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 317 

have snatched from them the city of Paris, which 
they thought was for ever subjected to their rule. 
Their only regret is that they could not put you all 
to death. Providence has this day placed it in your 
power to crush all their machinations, and they will 
consider the expulsion of the Jesuits from France as 
great a calamity as the loss of two battles. Do not 
lose so fine an opportunity of delivering us from 
men to whom literature only serves as an instrument 
of wickedness, as it did to Caracalla. Expel the 
miscreants, who excel all other villains in turpitude 
and crime. 

" Should their advocate praise the magnanimity 
and clemency of the king, and appeal to those great 
qualities for their protection, remember that it is this 
very king, so magnanimous and clement, whose 
blood they daily pray for, and whose assassination 
is plotted in their detestable conclaves. Remember 
that, since the time of their founder Ignatius 
Loyola, they have endeavoured to deprive the Bour- 
bons of a part of Navarre, and that they are now 
striving to strip the reigning monarch of the crown 
of France, which they desire to incorporate with 
Spain, as a dependency, in the same manner that 
they have done with Portugal." 

Then apostrophizing the king, Arnauld exclaimed, 
" It is weakness, it is folly, to tolerate these trai- 
tors, these assassins in the heart of your dominions. 
Your fame has spread over Europe, and has reached 
the most distant countries ; your victories are the 
theme of general conversation ; you have well earned 
the surname of the " Great," and that title is already 
consecrated to immortality ; your deeds of arms have 



318 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

encircled your brows with laurels, and placed your 
enemies under your feet. But your majesty was 
not brought into this world solely to acquire glory ; 
and consider how much that glory will be stained, 
if posterity read in the history of your reign, that 
because you did not strangle these serpents, or drive 
them out of your kingdom, they ultimately de- 
stroyed you, and after you, all your poor subjects. 
If you are too generous to tremble for your own 
person, tremble at least for the lives of your people. 
They abandoned wives, children, property, to follow 
your fortunes. Others, compelled to remain in large 
towns, were exposed to the cruelties of the Sixteen, 
for having opened their gates to you ; and will you 
now hesitate to preserve your own life which alone 
can preserve their lives ? Your majesty has still 
a sufficient number of open enemies to combat, in 
France, in Flanders, and in Spain ; expel these do- 
mestic assassins ; provided you banish them, we 
shall have nothing to fear. The Spaniard can only 
enslave us by spilling your blood ; the Jesuits, their 
instruments will never remain quiet till they have 
seen it flow from your heart. Hitherto our vigilance 
has prevented regicide ; but, Sire, if they are allowed 
to remain, they will find new murderers, they will 
confess them and absolve them, as they did Barriere, 
and we, with all our watchfulness, cannot guarantee 
your safety. 

" You are the eldest son of the most noble, the 
most august, the most ancient family in France ; 
your life has been a series of triumphs and trophies, 
of victories and laurels ; and where are the traitors, 
where are the bastard French, who dare insinuate 



REIGN" OF HENRY IV. 319 

into your majesty's mind that you ought to be cau- 
tious lest you should offend foreign princes, and thus 
persuade you to foster murderers who seek every op- 
portunity to put you to death \ The kings of France 
have been accustomed to dictate the law. not receive 
it. The God of battles, whose hand has conducted 
you thus far. destines you to still higher glories ; 
but. Sire, do not despise the warnings he has given 
you ; banish, with the assassin Jesuits, all who, seek- 
ing to build their fortunes on your grave, endeavour 
to retain them in your kingdom." 

Arnauld concluded his vehement haranone bv de- 
manding. at the request of the university, that the 
Jesuits should be banished from the kingdom, and 
from all countries depending on his majesty, and 
that they should quit France in fifteen days after 
the notice of banishment had been served at each of 
their colleges or houses. In the event of their not 
obeying the order, he demanded that, without any 
form of procedure, they should be condemned as 
guilty of high-treason, and as having conspired 
against the life of the king. 

Louis Dolle, advocate of the curates of Paris. 
pleaded after Arnauld. Fie spoke against the 
Jesuits with equal force and eloquence, but in a 
more moderate tone. He observed that they were 
not members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, either as 
secular or regular priests : that they had only been 
received in France in the character of a collegiate so- 
ciety, and on the express condition that they would 
not undertake any thing to the prejudice of the 
bishops or curates : that far from observing these 
conditions, they had been the censors of the clero-v, 



320 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

pretending to be universal pastors and guardians of 
the church ; that by virtue of the privileges too 
prodigally granted them by the pope, and which the 
colloquy of Poissy forbade them to exercise, they had 
not only exalted themselves above the curates, but 
even above the bishops, and had disturbed the whole 
hierarchical discipline. He painted in the blackest 
colours the furious zeal they had displayed against 
the king during the league. " Dare you deny," 
said he, apostrophizing them, " dare you deny that 
when the late king, Henry III., was at Saint 
Cloud, in 1589, you went daily to the trenches dis- 
tributing money to the soldiers, and exhorting 
them to persist in their rebellion ? Have you not 
been compelled to acknowledge that a priest of your 
company was the chief of the Sixteen, and presided 
at the meetings of those villains V 

Passing from this reproach to one of a graver cha- 
racter, the advocate accused them with having been 
the accomplices of Barriere, and thus maintained 
the charge. " The Jesuits," said he, " admit in 
their own apologies that Yarade, having listened to 
the assassin, who asked him if he ought to kill the 
king, judged from his countenance, manner, and lan- 
guage that he was insane, and told him that he 
could give him no advice, because, being a priest, he 
would incur the censure of irregularity, if he offered 
an opinion on a subject which would prevent his 
celebrating mass, which he wished to do immedi- 
ately. Gracious God," continued the orator, " is it 
possible that a priest, on the point of offering up a 
sacrifice of peace, dare to affirm that he was not per- 
mitted to dissuade from regicide ! Hypocrites that 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 321 

you are ! think you that the saving of a mans life 
is a violation of the sabbath ? Your rules permit 
you to practise medicine and surgery, and yet you 
make it a scruple of conscience to snatch the knife 
from him who is about to plunge it into the heart of 
your father ! Your own excuse is your condemna- 
tion, and proves to which side you lean. 

" I know well," continued Dolle, addressing him- 
self to the judges, " that Yarade is the only one 
punishable by law. What, then! must we delay 
the expulsion of all of them, till they have killed as 
many kings as there are Jesuits. But, gentlemen, 
it is not Yarade alone, but the whole society, who 
have renewed, by the execrable doctrines they in- 
culcate, the murderous policy of the Old Man of 
the Mountain, that formidable prince of assassins. 
There are but few of them who were not implicated 
in the infernal plot. Their sermons prove it." 

Dolle next dwelt on the evils which the Jesuits 
had caused by the system of confession. " It is not 
necessary," said he, " to cite examples ; there is not 
a respectable family in France which cannot adduce 
several. I shall content myself with noticing one 
quite recent, and of public notoriety. The Jesuits 
of Fribourg wished to persuade the small Catholic 
cantons to separate themselves from the small Pro- 
testant cantons, and break their union, which is the 
palladium of Switzerland ; but finding the men too 
firm, they imitated the serpent who tempted Eve. 
They addressed themselves to the women, and ad- 
vised them to refuse conjugal privileges to their hus- 
bands till they had consented to dissolve the al- 

Y 



322 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

liance. They obeyed their directors, and their hus- 
bands, having heard from them by whom they were 
seduced, punished their seducers as they deserved." 

From their system of confessions, the advocate re- 
turned to their doctrine, and concluded his pleading 
in these terms : " We have been told that the 
Jesuits wished to assassinate the king ; not only 
have we evidence of the fact, but the traitor has 
confessed that he counselled the deed. And can we 
doubt, after that, what we ought to do to those who 
would cut all our throats if they had the opportu- 
nity ? If you do not now banish them ffrom 
the kingdom, you will positively establish them. 
Our first movements are full of vigour and spirit, 
but they slacken with time : of this we have already 
had too much proof, for during thirty years that 
this question has been agitated, we have slumbered 
and have not thought of the evil till we have been 
made to feel its pressure. The Jesuits, who know 
our weak point, wish to protract the sentence by de- 
laying the trial, and thus gaining time, which gains 
every thing in France. Those for whom I speak 
know that their sacred profession prevents them' de- 
manding vegeance on the wickedness of their oppo- 
nents. But, gentlemen, as in ancient times the 
augurs of Rome were obliged to advise the senate 
concerning all prodigies that appeared, that they 
might avert the evils they presaged by expiations, 
in a similar manner the plaintiffs, who have the 
charge of things holy and sacred, as the augurs for- 
merly had, apprise you that there is a great prodigy 
in this city, and in other towns of France : it is this, 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 323 

— that men icho call themselves religious teach their 
pupils the lawfulness of killing Icings. Avert, then, 
the evils of this prodigy by your prudence." 

Duret, advocate of the Jesuits, fearing to en- 
counter public animadversion, roused to the highest 
pitch by these speeches, went secretly to Tours, 
without awaiting the close of the pleadings. This 
incident, favourable to the wily artifices of the Je- 
suits, suspended the decision of parliament, who 
could not pronounce sentence till they had heard the 
defence of the accused; but Henry IV., who was 
not ignorant that during the troubles of the league 

CO © 

the Jesuits had won over allies who exerted them- 
selves energetically in their favour, and who knew 
also of what they were capable, felt that, in order 
to destroy the criminal faction, it was indispensable 
that justice should take its course, and that they 
should be expelled the kingdom. In consequence 
he addressed a note to the parliament, by which he 
formally commanded them not to listen to any dila- 
tory pleas, but proceed to judgment. The will of 
the king being thus imperatively expressed, the 
Jesuits saw that they could not elude the law, and 
decided on presenting their defence through father 
Barny, to whom they gave the title of Attorney- 
general of the Jesuits, regents, and scholars of the 
college of Clermont. This Jesuit pleaded that the 
form of action was irregular, and therefore that it 
must be dismissed ; but parliament overruled the 
plea, and determined on pronouncing sentence. Un- 
fortunately this resolution was not carried into effect, 

and the Jesuits took advantage of the remissness of 

© 

parliament to renew their intrigues, and form new 

y 2 



324 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

plots against the life of the king. It was not 
long before they found an instrument of their ven- 
geance. 

While this process was being carried on, hostili- 
ties were resumed against the remnant of the league. 
The Duke of Montpensier laid siege to Honfleur, the 
only town in Lower Normandy which persisted in 
its rebellion. The whole of Upper Normandy had 
submitted, Villars, Governor of Rouen, having re- 
turned to his allegiance. Honfleur surrendered after 
a spirited defence, in which the besiegers sustained 
considerable loss. Several other towns in different 
provinces followed this example ; and about the 
same time Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Elbceuf, 
joined the royal party, stipulating for a pension of 
thirty thousand francs, and the government of Saint 
Marthe, both of which demands were conceded. 

Mayenne still continued obstinate. The princes 
of his family met at Ba-le-Duc, to decide on their 
future plans. The Duke of Lorraine inclined for 
peace, but the Dukes of Mayenne and Aumale op- 
posed his pacific views. It was decided that they 
should treat with the Archduke Ernest, the new 
Governor of the Low Countries, and endeavour 
through him to obtain supplies from Spain. But 
the Spanish ministers were divided in opinion. Count 
Charles of Mansfeldt, deeming the subjugation of 
France now impossible, wished to concentrate all 
their forces to maintain themselves in the Low Coun- 
tries, which they now held by a precarious tenure, 
observing that Philip might lose that part of his 
hereditary dominions in the attempt to seize the 
kingdom of his rival. On the other hand, the Count 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 325 

of Fuentes, wrongly informed of the affairs of France 
by the Duke of Feria, persisted in aiming at the 
election of the infanta ; when, however, they heard 
that Paris was irrecoverably lost, the Archduke 
Ernest determined to abandon these chimerical pre- 
tensions, and confine himself to the conquest of Pi- 
cardy and Burgundy, as some indemnity for the 
vast expenditure incurred by the court of Madrid in 
upholding the league. This last plan of operations 
was approved of by Philip. 

Mansfeldt opened the campaign by laying siege to 
La Cappelle, a strong town on the frontier, but at that 
time badly supplied with ammunition. It made a 
spirited, but short resistance, when the governor, De 
Mailleraye, capitulated, marching out with the hon- 
ours of war. This military reverse was more than 
balanced by a moral triumph that Henry now 
achieved in the capital. The parliament was re- 
formed ; but such of the magistrates appointed by 
Mayenne who had voted against the election of the 
infanta, were retained in ofhce, though their prece- 
dency was destroyed. Harlay, who had presided 
when the parliament sat at Tours, became first pre- 
sident of that of Paris, and Le Maistre, who had 
held the first seat during the troubles, was now re- 
duced to the seventh. They decided that obedience 
should be yielded to Henry IV., as lawful successor 
to the kingdom, declaring all who refused to ac- 
knowledge him, rebels and traitors ; by another de- 
cree they deprived the Duke of Mayenne of the 
office and title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom. 
A similar decree was passed by the Sorbonne, who, 
to the number of seventy, declared that the absolu- 



326 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

tion given to the king by the Archbishop of Bour- 
ges, was valid and efficient, and that none could de- 
cline to recognize him, without being guilty of mor- 
tal sin. This ecclesiastical body, headed by James 
Amboise, rector of the university of Paris, went in 
procession to the palace and did homage. 

However mortifying the capture of La Cappelle 
was to the king, it was a source of extreme em- 
barrassment to Mayenne. It clearly proved that 
the Spaniards were prosecuting the war on their ow T n 
account, and independently of him. This slight he 
attributed to the Duke of Feria, and determined on 
a personal interview with the archduke, who re- 
ceived him graciously, hoping that he would place 
himself under the protection of Spain, as the Duke 
of Aumale had done. To such a humiliation May- 
enne would not submit, on which the Spanish coun- 
sellors advised his arrest, but the archduke would 
not countenance such an act of treachery, and it was 
finally agreed that Mayenne should unite his forces 
with Mansfeldt, and carry on the war jointly with 
that general. 

The king, at the head of twelve thousand foot, and 
two thousand horse, laid siege to Laon, in which 
Mayenne had placed his son, and the greater part of 
his personal property. Mansfeldt marched to its 
relief, and his first attack on an outpost of the be- 
siegers was successful. The royalists intercepted an 
abundant caravan of provisions and military stores, 
forwarded from Noyon to the beleaguered town, and 
a further supply sent from La Fere to the Spanish 
camp. Mayenne was compelled to retreat, which 
he did in good order in face of the enemy, and 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 327 

Laon surrendered to the king on the 22nd of July, 
1594. Amiens next submitted, the inhabitants hav- 
ing driven out the Duke of Aumale. The Duke of 
Lorraine concluded a truce with the king, and the 
young Duke of Guise took the oath of allegiance, re- 
ceiving as the price of his submission the govern- 
ment of Provence, four hundred thousand crowns to 
pay his father's debts, and many ecclesiastical pre- 
ferments for his brother, vacant by the recent death 
of the Cardinal of Bourbon. 

The league was thus crumbling into pieces, and 
the triumph of the royalists seemed speedy, certain, 
and complete, when the Jesuits made another attempt 
to murder the king. Jean Chatel, son of a draper 
at Paris, was the instrument of their vengeance. On 
the 27th of November, 1594, the king, having re- 
turned from Picardy, alighted at the hotel of the 
fair Gabrielle, booted and spurred. Several gentle- 
men repaired thither to pay him their respects. As 
Henry was stooping to raise an officer who was in 
the act of saluting him on one knee, the assassin, who 
had entered the saloon with the crowd, aimed a knife 
at his breast, but the movement of Henry prevented 
the blow taking; effect where the murderer had in- 
tended; it struck the upper jaw, cut the lip, and 
dislodged a tooth. Chatel attempted to escape, but 
the king's fool, Mathurin, having closed the door, he 
was seized. On being interogated he fully confessed 
that the Jesuits had instigated him to the crime. 

Jean Chatel was tried, and convicted of regicide. 
He was sentenced to have his flesh pulled off with 
pincers in the four principal quarters of the city, to 
have his right hand cut off, and his body torn to 



328 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

pieces by four horses. The Jesuit Guignard was 
sentenced to the gallows ; two others of the frater- 
nity, Guret and Alexander Hay, a Scotchman, were 
condemned to perpetual banishment. The house of 
Chatel's father was razed to the ground, and a pyra- 
mid erected on it, to commemorate his crime. The 
Jesuits were banished from the kingdom, the parlia- 
ment denouncing them " as corrupters of youth, 
disturbers of the public peace, and enemies to the 
king and state." In addition to this decree of the 
parliament, the clergy of Paris declared that the 
doctrine which taught the killing of princes was 
heretical and diabolical, and expressly charged men 
of all religious orders to acknowledge and obey King 
Henry I Y., as their lawful prince, and insert in their 
masses those prayers which were wont to be said for 
the safety of the most Christian kings of France. l . 



1 When the commissaries of police searched the papers of 
Guignard, they discovered a MS. eulogium of the massacre of 
Saint Bartholomew and of James Clement, which contained 
this atrocious paragraph : u The crown of France can and ought 
to be transferred to some other family than that of Bourbon ; the 
Bearnais, although converted to the Catholic faith, would be 
treated more leniently than he deserves to be, if he was 
given a monacal crown in some strict convent, where he would 
have leisure to repent. If he cannot be deposed without war, 
wage war against him ; if war cannot be successfully made 
against him, put him to death." These regicidal doctrines 
were first published by Mariana, a Spanish Jesuit, in 1599, in 
a work entitled, " De Rege et Regis Institutione." In book 
i. c. 6, he extols the murderous attack of James Clement on 
Henry III., and thus praises the assassin ; " Cceso rege ingens sibi 
nomen fecit, 1 ' thus exalting him into a hero, and then he calls 
him, "JEternam Gallic? decus," — the eternal glory of France. This 
passage was suppressed in the 8vo ed. published at Mayence in 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 329 

On the 15th of January, 1595, Henry published a 
declaration of war against Spain. Philip answered 
it, stating that he warred only against the Prince of 
Beam and his Huguenot confederates, and forbidding 
all his subjects to attack or molest such of the French 
as adhered to the Catholic party. This astucious 
answer did not produce the effect anticipated by the 
court of Madrid ; it seduced none from their allegi- 
ance ; on the contrary, Beaune, in Burgundy, sub- 
mitted to Marshal Biron ; Ossone and Autun fol- 
lowed the example. The Constable of Castille, how- 
ever, invaded Franche-Comte with eight thousand 
foot, and two thousand horse, effecting his junction 
with Mayenne, who had only one thousand foot 
and four hundred horse. He captured Yesoul, and 
advanced to the relief of Dijon, which the king was 
about to attack. Detachments of the hostile armies 
encountered each other, and many were slain on 
both sides ; but the Constable of Castille, not daring 
to hazard the whole of Franche-Comte on the chance 
of a single battle, retreated, in spite of the opposition 
of Mayenne. The king pursued the Spaniards, and 
defeated them at Fontaine- Francaise, when they 
crossed the Saone. This success of the royalists, 
coupled with the positive refusal of the Spanish gen- 

1605. After the assassination of Henry IV. by Ravaillac, in 
1610, this book of Mariana's was burned by the common hang- 
man, by order of the parliament of Paris. At the same time 
the following Jesuitical books on regicide were condemned ; that 
of Bellarmin, entitled, u Traite de la Puissance du Pape dans 
les choses Temporelles ;" that of Becanus, u La Controverse d?An- 
gleterre sur la Puissance du Roi et du Pape;' 9 and that of Suares, 
u Defense de la Fdi Catholique et Apostolique contre les erreursde 
la secte Anglicane," 



330 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

eral to strike a decisive blow, induced Mayenne to 
think of submission, and to this he was the more in- 
clined in consequence of intelligence received from 
Rome, that the pope had become favourable to the 
claims of Henry IV. The duke, therefore, pro- 
posed the following preliminary terms of accommo- 
dation, which were accepted : that he, leaving the 
Spanish camp, should return to Chalons, where, 
without using arms, he should await the decision of 
Rome ; on the other hand, that the king should not 
molest him or any of his followers, nor make any 
attempt against Chalons, — and, that when the papal 
absolution was obtained, the duke should take the 
oaths of allegiance. This truce being concluded, 
Mayenne ordered Tavannes, who commanded at 
Dijon, to surrender the town and its two castles. 

Since his abjuration the king had given re- 
peated and strict orders to maintain the Roman 
Catholic faith : he established the mass in all places 
from which it had been banished, and did all in his 
power to restore the estates of the clergy, — a task 
of extreme difficulty, as they were in the possession 
of lords and gentlemen, who had seized them during 
the troubles, and who refused to surrender them with- 
out compensation. He did not succeed in every in- 
stance, but still the friendly disposition thus mani- 
fested to the church, had considerably diminished 
the authority of the pope ; moreover, the affairs of 
the king had become so prosperous that his holiness 
began to fear lest Henry might set him at defiance, 
no longer seek for absolution, and render the Gallican 
church independent of the apostolic see. Cardinal 
Serafino having remarked, " that Clement VII. had 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 331 

lost England, and that Clement VIII. might lose 
France," and the Venetian and Florentine ambassa- 
dors having urged the necessity of pacifying Christ- 
endom, that all its energies might be employed to 
resist the Turks, who were making alarming inroads 
into Hungary, the pope at length resolved to consult 
the cardinals individually, and having collected their 
opinions he declared in full consistory that two-thirds 
of the cardinals had voted for the absolution of 
Henry IT. 

On the 16th of September, 1595, the pope pro- 
nounced his decree, by which he absolved Henry of 
Bourbon, King of France and Navarre, from all 
censures, and received him into the bosom of the 
Catholic church on the following conditions. That 
the Roman Catholic religion should be introduced 

o 

into the principality of Beam, and four monasteries 
of friars and nuns be founded there ; that the council 
of Trent be received by all France, except in those 
articles which might interfere with the privileges of 
the Gallican church, with which the pope agreed to 
dispense ; that within the term of one year the 
young Prince of Conde should be confided to Roman 
Catholic preceptors, to be by them educated ; that 
Roman Catholics of exemplary character should be 
nominated to prelacies ; that all lands and goods 
taken from the church should be restored forthwith, 
and without any judicial procedure ; that none should 
be elected to the magistracy who were heretics or 
suspected of heresy ; that the king should give an 
account of his conversion and abjuration to all 
Christian princes. The spiritual penances imposed 
on him were, that on every Sunday and holy day he 



332 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

should hear a conventual mass, either in his private 
chapel, or some church ; that, according to the cus- 
tom of the kings of France he should hear mass 
every day, and that on some set days of the week 
he should say certain prayers ; that he should fast 
on Fridays and Sundays, and receive the commu- 
nion publicly four times in a year. 1 

These terms were accepted by the king's represen- 
tatives, who knelt down at the gate of St. Peter's 
church, and abjured the heresies contained in a writ- 
ten document ; they were touched on the head by 
Cardinal Santa Severina, and received absolution ; 
the church was then opened and immediately re- 
sounded with music, while the castle of Saint An- 
gelo fired salvos of artillery. Cardinal Alessandro 
di Medici was appointed legate of France, to report 
the papal decision, and cause it to be published in 
every church. The Duke of Elbceuf had prevailed 
on the Duke of Mercceur to sign a truce with the 
king in Brittany, and internal peace being thus es- 
tablished, Henry had no other enemies but the 
Spaniards on the side of Flanders. 

The Archduke Ernest being dead, and Count 
Charles of Mansfeldt having been ordered to Hun- 
gary, the command of the Low Countries devolved 
on the Count of Fuentes, who, eager to distinguish 
himself, laid siege to Dourlens, 2 which town he 

1 Davila, p. 675. 
? At the siege of Dourlens, Admiral Villars, who had so 
bravely held Rouen for the league, till relieved by the Duke of 
Parma, was slain. He was killed on the field of battle, accord- 
ing to Sully, 1. vii. I/Etoile relates his death differently. He 
says that Villars, having been made prisoner by some Neapoli- 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 333 

seized, after having gained a victory over the French. 
He next made himself master of Cambray, and De 
Rosne, one of his lieutenants, captured Calais. 1 
Ardres also fell into his hands, and the only con- 
quest made by the king, to compensate these losses, 
was the recovery of La Fere. 

While the war was thus being carried on, the car- 
dinal-legate arrived in Paris, and having discharged 
the object of his mission, began to negociate a peace 
between the two crowns. It was indeed the gene- 
ral interest of Christendom that hostilities should 
cease, for Spain and France, by mutually exhausting 
their strength, encouraged the Turks to attempt the 
conquest of Hungary, and it was justly apprehended 
that, if successful, they would penetrate into Aus- 
tria. Henry himself eagerly desired a pacification, 
for the Calvinists began to desert him, — Elizabeth of 
England gave him but little support, — the Dutch 



tans, a Spanish captain, named Contrera, entered on purpose 
into a dispute with some of them, as to whose custody he should 
be placed in, and on* their refusal to surrender him, Contrera put 
him to death. L'Etoile adds, that the hatred the Spaniards bore 
him, ever since he quitted the party of the league for that of the 
king, was the true cause of his death. 

1 Queen Elizabeth offered to defend Calais against the Span- 
iards, upon condition that the place was put into the hands of 
the English. Sancy, who was then ambassador at London, 
made answer to the queen, that the king, his master, would 
rather see it in the hands of the Spaniards than in those of the 
English ; and Henry himself said, " If I am to be bit, I would 
as soon it were by a lion as a lioness." This was the reason 
why Elizabeth afterwards refused to besiege that town, when the 
king was encamped before Amiens, though he then offered to 
put it into her hands by way of security for her pecuniary ad- 
vances. — Mathieu, torn. ii. 1. ii. p. 223. 



334 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 



were barely able to protect themselves, — and the 
Protestant princes of Germany required all their re- 
sources to defend their frontiers against the Maho- 
metans. 

The king's absolution being confirmed, Mayenne 
took the oaths of allegiance and received liberal terms. 
Henry granted him Soissons, Chalons, and Sevre for 
his security, with power to retain them six years, 
when they were to be surrendered to the crown. 
The king agreed to confirm all appointments made 
by the duke while he was lieutenant-general of the 
kingdom, provided the holders of them took out new 
patents under the royal seal. A full amnesty for 
the past was conceded. Mayenne also received the 
government of the Isle of France, and the superinten- 
dence of the finances ; his son obtained the govern- 
ment of Chalons. In this agreement all Mayenne's 
friends, who chose to submit, were included. The 
sentences and judgments pronounced against the 
Dukes of Mercoeur and Aumale were suspended, 
and six weeks were allowed them to tender their 
allegiance. 

The interview at which the king and Mayenne 
were reconciled took place at Monceaux, and the 
particulars of it are thus narrated by Sully. " The 
king was walking in the park, attended only by my- 
self, when the Duke of Mayenne arrived, who put 
one knee to the ground with the lowest submission, 
and added to a promise of inviolable fidelity his ac- 
knowledgments to his majesty for having detached 
him, as he expressed himself, from the arrogance of 
the Spaniards and the subtlety of the Italians. 
Henry, who, as soon as he saw him approach, had 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 335 

advanced to meet him, embraced him thrice, and 
forcing him to rise, again embraced him, with that 
amiability which he never withheld from a subject 
who returned to his duty ; then taking his hand, he 
made him walk with him in the park, conversing 
familiarly on the embellishments he proposed to 
make. The king walked so fast that Mayenne, 
fatigued by the heat of the weather, his corpulency, 
and sciatica, suffered great inconvenience without 
venturing to complain. The king perceiving it by 
the flushed countenance of his companion, who was 
bathed in perspiration, whispered to me, c If I walk 
longer with this burly body, I shall revenge myself 
upon him without any difficulty for all the mischief 
he has done us/ Then turning to the duke he said, 
' Tell me truly, cousin, do I not walk a little too 
fast for you V Mayenne replied that he was almost 
stifled, and that if his majesty walked but a little 
while longer, he would kill him without designing it. 
6 Hold there, cousin,' rejoined the king, with a smile 
and embracing him, c this is all the revenge you 
will ever experience from me/ Mayenne, sensibly 
affected by this frank behaviour, attempted to kneel 
and kiss the hand his majesty extended to him, 
protesting that he would henceforward serve him 
against his own relations. ' I believe it,' said Henry, 
c and that you may love and serve me a long time, 
go to the castle and rest, and refresh yourself, for 
you have much need of it. I will give you a couple 
of bottles of Arbois wine, for I know you will not 
dislike it ; here is Rosne, who will accompany you ; 
he shall do the honours of my house, and attend you 
to your chamber : he is one of my oldest servants, 



336 REIGN OP HENRY IV. 

and one of those who is the most rejoiced at your 
resolving to serve me and love me affectionately.' 
The king continuing his walk left me with the Duke 
of Mayenne, whom I conducted to a summer-house 
to repose himself, and afterwards attended him to 
his horse, as much satisfied with the king and me, 
as we both were with him. " l 

While the king was endeavouring to conciliate 
his own subjects by generosity, and the legate was 
exerting himself to terminate the Spanish war by 
negociation, intelligence arrived that Amiens had 
been surprised. Henry was thunder-struck at this 
unexpected disaster, and said passionately to the 
beautiful Gabrielle, " I have sufficiently acted the 
King of France ; I must now resume the- character 
of the King of Navarre/' It was on the 11th of 
March, 1597, that Porto Carrero, the Spanish Go- 
vernor of Dourlens, obtained possession of Amiens 
through a stratagem. He disguised thirty Spaniards, 
as countrymen and countrywomen, who stopped up 
one of the gates of the city by emptying a cart 
loaded with sacks of walnuts ; one of these sacks 
was left open so that the contents were scattered 
over the ground, and while the guards were amus- 
ing themselves by picking them up, some Spanish 
soldiers, who had concealed themselves behind the 
hedges, marched up, and made themselves masters 
of the town. Porto Carrero with the main body of 
his forces quickly followed, and secured his con- 
quest. 

The king hastened to expel the enemy from this 

1 Sully, lib. viii. 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 337 

important city, within twenty-eight leagues of Paris. 
It was attacked and defended with equal courage 
and skill. Mayenne here distinguished himself on 
the side of the royalists. Amiens resisted till the 
25th of September, when it capitulated, the garrison 
marching out with all the honours of war. In this 
siege, Porto Carrero ' and De Rosne were slain, and 
when the place surrendered, the Marquis of Mont- 
enegro was the commandant, who rode up to the 
king, truncheon in hand, alighted and kissed his 
knee, saying with a loud voice, " that he delivered 
up the city into the hands of a soldier king, since it 
had not pleased the king his master to cause it to 
be relieved by soldier commanders." Henry an- 
swered, " that it ought to satisfy him that he had 
defended the place like a soldier, and now restored 
it to the lawful king with the honour of a soldier." 

This was the last military event of the campaign, 
and negociations were entered into at Yervins, a 
town on the confines of Picardy and Artois, for 
peace. The urgency of the affairs of Flanders, and 
the scarcity of money, induced the King of Spain to 
put an end to hostilities. He was far advanced in 
years, and wished to secure to his son the inheritance 
of the Low Countries before his death, and these 
views were supported by the archduke, who was 
about to marry the Infanta Isabella, and receive 
the governorship of those provinces. Henry was 
equally desirous of peace, that he might reform the 

1 Porto Carrero used to say, the three greatest commanders he 
knew were, Henry for the conduct of a large army, the Duke of 
Mayenne for the siege of a town, and Marshal Biron for a 
pitched battle.— Mathieu, torn. ii. lib.ii p. 232. 

Z 



338 REIGN OF HENRY IV. 

internal administration of his kingdom. The Spa- 
niards offered to restore Ardres, Dourlens, La Chap- 
pelle, Castelet, and Montaulin, in Picardy, and the 
port of Blavet ' in Brittany ; but insisted on retaining 
Calais, so long as the Dutch war continued. The 
French demanded the immediate restoration of 
Calais, and claimed Cambray. It was contended 
by the Spanish negociators that all old pretensions 
between the two crowns had been adjusted and ter- 
minated, at the treaty of Chateau Cambresis, in 1559, 
when it had been decided, that Cambray was not 
within the royal jurisdiction of France, but belonged 
to the archbishop, under the protectorate of the 
sovereign of the Low Countries, and that its usur- 
pation by the Duke of Alen9on gave no title to the 
pretensions of Henry IV. This argument prevailed 
with the French diplomatists, and each party aban- 
doned their respective demands on Calais and Cam- 
bray. Only one point now remained, which re- 
lated to Blavet ; the King of France desired its sur- 
render in the state in which it then was, with all its 
artillery and munitions of war; the Spaniards in- 
sisted on the demolition of the fort which they had 
built, and the removal of the guns which belonged 
to them, and to this arrangement the French ulti- 
mately consented. 

The next difficulty that arose related to the 
allies. Henry desired that an agreement should be 
made with the Queen of England and the States of 
Holland, while the King of Spain wished that the 
Duke of Savoy and the Duke of Mercceur should 

1 Blavet is now called Port-Louis, and is situate within the 
bishopric of Vannes. 



REIGN OF HENRY IV. 339 

be included in the peace. On these particulars an 
angry discussion arose, for the French negociators 
refused to comprehend the Duke of Mercosur, as 
being the king's subject and a rebel; the Spaniards 
answered, that the Dutch were equally the rebellious 
subjects of Philip. This dispute threatened to re- 
kindle the war, when Mercceur 1 submitted, and 
England and Holland declared their intention of 
continuing hostilities against Spain. 

Nothing now remained to be settled but the claims 
of the Duke of Savoy, who insisted on holding the 
Marquisate of Saluzzo, as a grand fief of the crown 
of France. This was resisted, and after much de- 
bate, both parties agreed to refer the point to 
the pope, who was to give his award within 
twelve months. 

The peace of Yervins was signed on the 2nd of 
May, 1598, and published in Paris, Amiens, and 
Brussels, on the 7th of June in the same year. The 
religious wars which had continued during thirty- 
eight years, reckoning from the conspiracy of Am- 
boise in 1560 to 1598, had spread ruin and desola- 
tion throughout France, spilling its best blood and 
vitiating the moral character of its people. It was 
an experiment on a grand scale to establish the 
sacred principle of religious liberty, but it failed ; 
the age was not ripe for truth. Moreover, the con- 

1 The Duke of Mercceur's daughter was married to Caesar, 
son of Henry IV. and the fair Gabrielle. Their nuptials were 
celebrated at Angers, with as much pomp as would have been 
displayed, had Cassar been legitimate. He was but four years 
of age, and his wife only two years of age, when the ceremony 
was performed. — Perefixe. 

z 2 



340 rei6n of henry iv. 






tiguity of Rome, Spain, and Austria, blighted the 
young germs of freedom. Despotism coalesced 
against the right of private judgment, aided by 
the inquisition and the Jesuits. It is true that the 
liberal spirit was awakened during this fearful strug- 
gle, and the preacher Jurieu proclaimed before Locke 
the sovereignty of the people ; but the theory was 
not reduced into practice. Even the edict of Nantes 
which followed the peace of Vervins, was a very 
equivocal boon to Calvinism, for though the pro- 
fession of it was tolerated, it was under such re- 
strictions as gave it the character of a gilded slavery. 
It was not a charter of liberty, in the only sense in 
which liberty is valuable, though the exclusive Ro- 
man Catholics considered even its niggardly con- 
cessions unjust. Henry IV. himself was no friend 
to constitutional rights ; he was in heart a despot ; 
he opposed the decrees of parliament by the idle or- 
dinances of beds of justice. How, indeed, can we 
admire a prince who ostentatiously boasted that he 
wished every peasant had a fowl daily for his din- 
ner, and yet signed the atrocious law which con- 
demned a peasant to the whip and the galleys for 
killing a rabbit ! The despotism of Richelieu and 
Lous XIY. may be traced to Henry IV. He was 
popular withal, and still lives in the memory of 
Frenchmen. 



THE END. 



J. Rickerby, Printer, Sherbourn Lane. 




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